Utah Humanities Council will host the announcement of the winners of the Utah Arts Council’s 2007 Original Writing Competition on Wednesday, October 24 at 5:30P, followed by the Define-a-Thon. That evening, UHC will also publicly recognize and honor the winners of the Utah Center for the Book’s 2007 Utah Book Awards and the winner of the 2007 May Swenson Poetry Award.

Utah Book Award
The Utah Book Award was established to honor outstanding achievements by Utah writers and to recognize books written with a Utah theme or setting. In 1999, the first and only award was presented that year to author Robert Van Wagoner for his novel Dancing Naked. Since then, the categories have been expanded to include fiction, non- fiction, poetry, and literature for children and young adults.

Utah Original Writing Competition
Each year since 1958, the annual Utah Original Writing Competition has awarded recognition and cash prizes to some of Utah’s finest writers. These winners attract the attention of the wider literary world to our state and our literary community. Often these winners go on to win national prizes, acclaim and publication. With funds provided by the Utah State Legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts, the Utah Arts Council Literature Program has worked to provide the best possible judges for the competition and the largest possible prizes to the winners. In this, its 49th year, the Utah Original Writing Competition continues to honor those Utah writers who, through their literary excellence, bring recognition and prestige to our state.

Awards will be given in the following categories: Novel, Biography/Autobiography, Book-length Collection of Short Stories, Young Adult Book, Poetry, Short Story, Personal Essay

The May Swenson Poetry Award

This annual competition, named for May Swenson, honors her as one of America's most provocative and vital writers.