Benvenuto/Samet High School Writing Contest Winners' Reading

Wed, November 13, 2019 7:00 PM at RCAH Theater

Reading begins at 7:00 p.m., and there will be a reception following the event.

Each fall, the RCAH Center for Poetry hold the Richard Benvenuto High School Poetry Competition, with prize donated by Barry Gross in memory of his dear classmate, colleague, and friend Richard Benvenuto. New in 2017 is the Tom Samet High School Fiction Competition, with prize donated by Barry Gross in memory of his esteemed friend Tom Samet.

 

View photos from this event here. 

 

About Richard Benvenuto: 

Richard Ercole Benvenuto taught in the English Department at Michigan State University for 20 years. From his office in Morrill Hall he conducted grad student seminars and advised students on the best paths for their lives. He loved teaching and was a published scholar of Victorian Literature. At the time of his death, Indiana University dedicated an issue of Victorian Studies in his honor. He published two biographies, one on Emily Bronte and the other on Amy Lowell. His next book would have been on Oscar Wilde. As a young grad student he was awarded a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, which he used to pursue an MFA in Creative Writing at Hollins College, Virginia. At Hollins College, he worked under William Golding, author of Lord of the Flies. Richard played music and wrote poetry throughout his life. He was married for 27 years to his wife, Joyce, and has three children and four grandchildren. 

 

About Tom Samet: 

Tom Samet majored in English at Michigan State University and decided that he wanted to become an English professor. He graduated with High Honors, got a Ph.D in English and American Literature from Brown, and had a varied and satisfying academic career which was cut tragically short by his death at age 52.