Teachers & Writers Collaborative
Teachers & Writers Collaborative is pleased to announce the recipient of the 2010 Bechtel Prize and the finalists for the award.
2010 Bechtel Prize Winner
Garth Greenwell, Sofia Bulgaria: “A Native Music: Writing the City in Sofia, Bulgaria”
2010 Bechtel Prize Finalists
Wilson Diehl, Seattle, WA: “Getting Creative with the Truth”
Barbara Feinberg, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY: “Your First Lime”
The Bechtel Prize is awarded annually in recognition of an exemplary article or essay related to creative writing education or literary studies. Author, essayist, educator, and T&W Board member Phillip Lopate selected the 2010 Bechtel honorees.
The winning essay will appear in the Winter 2010–2011 issue of Teachers & Writers magazine and will be posted on the Teachers & Writers Collaborative website in December.
The submission deadline and guidelines for the 2011 Bechtel Prize will be posted on the
website by January 1, 2011.
Questions regarding the Bechtel Prize should be directed to bechtel.
To make a contribution to support the Bechtel Prize or Teachers & Writers magazine, please contact T&W Director Amy Swauger at 212-691-6590, e-mail.
Winner
Garth Greenwell, Sofia, Bulgaria, “A Native Music: Writing the City in Sofia, Bulgaria”
Finalists
Wilson Diehl, Seattle, WA, “Getting Creative with the Truth”
Barbara Feinberg, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY, “Your First Lime”
Garth Greenwell’s prize-winning essay will appear in the Winter issue of Teachers & Writers and will be posted on this website in December. Previous winners of the Bechtel Prize may be found here.
The Bechtel Prize is endowed by the Cerimon Fund in honor of Louise Seaman Bechtel (1894-1985). Editor-critic, author, and teacher of young children, Bechtel was the first person to head a juvenile book department established by an American publishing house. During her fifteen-year tenure as managing editor at the Macmillan Company (1919-1934), Bechtel shepherded production of more than 600 new books, marking a milestone in the growth and development of American literature for children. “Louise Seaman Bechtel had a contagious conviction of the importance of books for children,” said her close contemporary Virginia Haviland.
A noted critic, Bechtel was the children’s book review editor for the New York Herald Tribune from 1949 to 1957, and a frequent contributor to the Saturday Review and the New York Times. During her long career, Bechtel also amassed an incomparable collection of children’s books. Her collection (later donated to Vassar College and the University of Florida) exceeded 3,500 volumes, among them rare folk tales; Asian and African legends; Greek mythology; Aesop’s fables; tales from Shakespeare; and the work of early 20th century book illustrators such as Arther Rackham, Kate Greenaway, and Boris Artzybasheff.