Jerry Masinton

Langston Hughes Committee members are Chair Rick Mitchell, Lawrence Arts Center Gallery Director, Committee on Imagination & Place; June Jones, Lawrence Arts Center Board of Directors; Denise Low, Haskell Indian Nations University, Kansas Poet Laureate, Committee on Imagination & Place; Jerry Masinton, Retired Professor of English, University of Kansas; Elizabeth Avery Schultz, Retired Professor of English, University of Kansas, Lawrence Arts Center Board of Directors, Committee on Imagination & Place; Lisa Stockton, The Raven Bookstore.

Jerry Masinton has sat on the committee and received the award.

"It was encouraging to have the neighborhood acknowledge our efforts," he says.

Judges for this year's award included Maryemma Graham, Arts Center interim director June Jones, Denise Low, Jerry Masinton and Elizabeth Schultz.

-by Jerry Masinton

Two Lawrence residents have won the prestigious Langston Hughes Literary Award for 2006, an annual prize jointly sponsored by the Raven Book Store and the Lawrence Arts Center.
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Jerry Masinton is professor emeritus of the English department at KU and a member of the Langston Hughes Creative Writing Project Committee.

"In both cases, we had unanimous decisions," says Jerry Masinton, a retired KU English professor who sat on the selection committee.
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They tumble forth," Masinton says.
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What makes Rogers worthy of the award, Masinton says, is her ability to create "brilliant moments that you want to dwell on," using concrete imagery and a unique poetic voice.