Three seniors, a junior and a sophomore have won cash awards in an annual creative writing contest sponsored by the Department of English.

James Lyco, John Ha, Elizabeth Bongiovanni, Katherine Cannamela, and Tracy Lander each took honors in the competition, and will take home between $200 and $1,000. Their winning entries will be published in The Long River Review, formerly known as Writing UConn, the department's annual undergraduate literary publication. This year's publication, the 15th annual issue, will be released April 29.

Lyco, who penned "So Where Were the Spyders?," won the top prize, the Jennie Hackman Memorial Prize, which was created in 1979. Lyco's short story is about a group of college friends getting together for an annual reunion.

Ha, a senior majoring in English, won second prize, and $300, for his piece, titled "The Last Romantic." Third prize, worth $200, went to Bongiovanni for her story, "White Bone."

Cannamela, a senior majoring in Italian and Spanish, won the Collins Literary Prize and $800 for her poem, "If You Missed Me." And Lander, a sophomore with an individualized major, won a $500 Collins prize for two poems, "Twins," and "My Grandmother's Glass Box." The Collins Prize is funded through an endowment created by the children of Edward R. and Frances Schreiber Collins, who graduated from UConn in the early 1900s. It was established in 1994.

The students will read from their stories and poems at 6:30 p.m. April 29 at the UConn Co-op. The event is free and open to the public.

Richard Veilleux