April 1, 2025
NATCHITOCHES – Argus, Northwestern State University’s art and literary magazine, will launch its 2025 edition titled “Phobias” on Wednesday, April 9. In conjunction, the Department of English, Languages and Cultural Studies will host the annual reading for the NSU-Argus Award for Excellence in Creative Writing. Events will take place from 6:30-8:30 p.m. in the Lucile Hendrick Room on the first floor of the Student Union. Food and drink will be provided.
“The entire campus community is welcome to join us for refreshments, presentations of Argus awards and to hear readings by the creative writing award winners. Following the reading, there will be distribution of books and other giveaways,” said Dr. Rebecca Macijeski, assistant professor and coordinator of Creative Writing Programs.
Author Ross McMeekin was this year’s guest judge for the creative writing award. McMeekin is author of a story collection, “Below the Falls” (Thirty West, 2024), and a novel, “The Hummingbirds” (Skyhorse, 2018). His short fiction has appeared in publications such as Virginia Quarterly Review, X-R-A-Y, Vol.1 Brooklyn, and Shenandoah. He’s won fellowships from Hugo House and Jack Straw Cultural Center in Seattle and holds an MFA in Fiction from Vermont College of Fine Arts.
“We had more applicants than ever this year,” Macijeski said. “We selected 10 finalists from those applications and sent their writing samples to McMeekin for review.”
Winners are Kerrigan Zachry of Natchitoches, first place; Megan McCarstle of Prairieville, second place, and Joan Barbier of Broussard, third place. Each winner will receive $500 and participate in the award reading. The seven other finalists were Anja Moore of Keithville, Taylor Spitzer of Allen, Ren Sercovich of Belle Chasse, Gabriel Parker of Monroe, Briannah Stansberry of Jennings and Katie Grace Rion of Lake Charles.
McMeekin said it was difficult to choose one, much less three winners out of the submissions and offered praise for the three winners.
Of Zachyr’s work, McMeekin said, “I’m of the belief that great poetry—and literature—is best described by the writing itself, but if I were compelled to describe these poems, I’d start with contrasts. Humorous. Dark. Lively. Understated. Wry. Earnest. Insightful. Weary. And more. The culmination exhibits a poet whose range is to be admired, and it’s all delivered with a confident, compelling voice that demands one’s attention.”
Of McCarstle’s work, McMeekin said, “Written in precise, elegant prose, portraying a fictional Eastern Bloc, this piece startles with its level of specificity, and the authority and verisimilitude it evokes. There are mysterious, fantastical elements, but those evade hyperbole and remain firmly in the scholarly, realist realm, which reaches convincingly into the speculative.”
And of Barbier’s work, McMeekin said, “Wonderfully meditative and nostalgic while also being spotted with terror, this piece acts as a modern fable, slipping from realism into the mythical and back out seamlessly. The language is wonderfully evocative, shining light and bringing emotion to the character’s experiences while depending very little on the hollows of abstraction.”
For more information on Argus, visit https://www.argusatnsula.com/
