Aly is a graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop and the 2007 winner of the Marjorie Peale Prize from the South Carolina Poetry Society. Aly says she is "not a prolific writer ... for reasons yet unknown, the poetry seems to write itself in January, April and July." Of her poems, the judge wrote: "These poems are seductions of rhythm and repetition. With the sweep of their longer lines, and the punch of their shorter ones, they move in the great lyrical tradition of Walt Whitman."

     Second place went to Marie Griffin, a freelance writer, and third to Jan Francis, a retired teacher and author of two self-published memoirs. Both Spartanburg poets receive scholarships to Hub City's Writing in Place conference Aug.3-5.

     Mary Ann Chellis Stoddard, a 5^th grade teacher at Pine Street Elementary School won the prize in creative nonfiction for a piece entitled "The Room of our Dreams." Stoddard has traveled extensively and has degrees in International Studies, French and Education. Her piece was about an encounter with terrorism in Africa. Of Stoddard's work, the judge wrote, "Its immediacy and visual power caught me up from the opening paragraph."

     Second place in essay went to Josette Davison, a retired art teacher in Pacolet; and third to Carol Isler, a science teacher at Bynes High School.

     The judge in the poetry contest was Susan Meyers of Summerville, president of the Poetry Society of South Carolina. The judge for the essay contest was memoirist Sebastian Matthews of Asheville.