CLU awards top literary prizes for 2012

(THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. - May 14, 2012) Melanie Cornejo of Santa Maria and Andrew Olson of Murrieta received California Lutheran University's top literary prizes for 2012.

Cornejo, who graduated Saturday with a bachelor's degree in English, received the $1,000 Mark Van Doren Poetry Prize for the second year in a row. Former English professor Jack Ledbetter awarded the first Poetry Prize in 1972, making it CLU's longest-running scholarship. It became an endowed scholarship through donations from poet and literary critic Mark Van Doren's sons, John and Charles Van Doren. Mark Van Doren, who received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1940, had given a reading at CLU in 1971 and called it one of the bright spots in his career.

English Department faculty awarded Olson, a junior English major, the $500 Ledbetter Prize for Excellence in Writing for his play "Like Birds Caught." The award, named in honor of English professor emeritus Jack Ledbetter, is given annually to an English major for the best work in any literary genre.

CLU is a selective university located in Thousand Oaks, with centers in Oxnard and Woodland Hills for graduate courses and its Adult Degree Evening Program. With an enrollment of 4,100 students, CLU offers 37 undergraduate majors and graduate programs within the College of Arts and Sciences, School of Management and Graduate School of Education. Doctoral degrees in educational leadership, higher education leadership and clinical psychology are also offered. Members of the CLU student body come from across the nation and around the world and represent a diversity of faiths and cultures. For more information, visit http://www.callutheran.edu.