Rachel Roseberry ’11 sees the world as still new, “still keeping many secrets, still unspooling its shadows, still ready to surprise.” Her imaginative reflection on fear fully engaged the staff of Notre Dame Magazine and was chosen as the first-place winner in the magazine’s inaugural Young Alumni Essay Contest.
Editors spent a day reading the 62 entries in the contest, with follow-up readings and discussions of several top choices, before selecting the winning essays. The names of the authors were not attached to the essays and were not revealed until after the winning entries were chosen.
While the first-place choice was unanimous, the editors could not settle on only one second-place winner. Instead, they picked four. The first-place and four second-place winning essays appear in the winter 2013-14 print issue’s CrossCurrents section and are linked here. Honorable-mention essays will appear in magazine.nd.edu.
The winning 2013 contest essays and their authors are:
First place ($500 prize):
Fear itself, Rachel Roseberry ’11
Second place ($250 prize):
Are we vacuum owners yet? Sarah Ceponis ’11
Dog days, William Kearney ’08
Mary, Ashley Sinnott ’06
Tell me he’s in heaven, Carolyn Shivers’08
Honorable mention ($50 prize):
A dark, African night, Kevin Bailey ’08
A price I gladly pay, Casey Romero ’06
A slice of life, Reggie Henke ’12
Faith, metaphysics and Game of Thrones, Kathleen Hull ’13
Here comes everybody, William Stewart ’12
How to be 23, Alyssa Morones ’12
I’m the doctor, Caroline Green ’09
Our air-conditioned summer, James Uricheck ’12
Powerlifting like a lady, Jessica Peyton Roberts ’08
Return to the Durd, Greer Hannan ’09
Swim test, Mike Jordan Laskey ’08, ’10M.A.
The 42nd street hawker, Sara Felsenstein ’12
The Juniper Road, Nancy Powaga ’06