EAP Student Wins Prestigious Writing Award

UC Irvine student Lauren Johnson won the Dan Hemingway Prize for the short story, "Moth," while abroad on EAP at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. The annually-awarded prize goes to the winner of a short story contest open to all St. Andrews undergraduates. It was established by the Hemingway family in memory of their son, Dan, a first-year student at St. Andrews and avid writer who was killed tragically on Christmas Day, 1991. The contest is judged by short story writers and poets (A.L. Kennedy, Alice Thompson, and Kathleen Jamie have judged in the past) as well as full-time members of the School of English and Sue Hemingway (Dan's mother) herself.

Read "Moth"

An interview with Lauren Johnson

What made you want to go on EAP?

I knew I needed to put myself out there, that doing this would make me a better adult, better prepared to face the world outside of university. My timing was a bit unorthodox – I tacked on a fifth year to come abroad – but it worked out because it allowed me to take courses that really interested me, and to focus as much on the EXPERIENCE of all of this (meeting people from all over the world, traveling Europe, dealing with the Scottish weather!) as on the academic aspects. The experience is what I really wanted to take away, because I knew it would be great fodder for future stories! But really, the two have to go hand-in-hand... this is one year of your life that you've really got to throw yourself into and live as fully and multi-dimensionally as possible.

What area, if any, are you focusing on?

I took the only creative writing course that St. Andrews offers, and it was interesting... a very different approach than UCI in that they actually attempt to teach writing, versus simply responding to the writing that we turn out. Both approaches have their strengths and weaknesses, and I am glad to have had exposure to St. Andrews' methods. I had an emphasis in creative writing at UCI.

What have you found abroad that you most did not expect?

Probably my own response to the whole experience was the most surprising element of all this. I didn't get homesick, as I thought I would; really, I was quite up for the challenge. I have put myself out there so much this year, made friends, created a social life from scratch... this feels like a big achievement for a shy homebody, and makes me so much more confident about any future endeavors that I undertake.

What are your future plans?

I want to write! I have just received word that I have been admitted to the Master of Fine Arts Program in Fiction at UC Irvine, which has put me on quite a cloud. Ideally, I would like to make a life of my writing, and of teaching writing (again, I stress the word "ideally"... but a year abroad teaches you to keep an open mind and see what happens!). I hope that my two years in the program will help me to write my first novel!