2009 Contributors Bios

Works winning WRHC Awards, Staff Choice Awards, and Editors' Choice Award are linked to our website for the last three years only. The Scribendi staff also elected to give no Staff Choice Award in Digital Art and Visual Art this year.

Works winning awards longer than three years ago no longer appear on this website. Click here for graphic design of Contributors pages, as they appeared in the 2009 issue.

Jenny Alsup, University of New Mexico
Manta (Staff Choice Award, Essay/Creative Nonfiction)
The Night Sea Is
Jenny is a junior studying Biology, Conservation, and Spanish. She is an avid reader and loves traveling and photography.

Creed Rykel Archibald, Westminster College
Boys & Girls
Broken Stone in Duchesne County (WRHC Award, Fiction)
Creed is an English major. He enjoys reading, writing, the outdoors, and playing with his son Ethan.

Carson W. Bennett, Brigham Young University
Under Oceans (Staff Choice Award, Poetry)
Carson is a boy—a boy who likes tennis—a tennis player who likes girls, a ladies man who writes poetry, and a poet who likes the fact that he is a boy.

Amanda Bloom, Orange Coast College
Identity
Amanda is an English major who has graduated and will be transferring to a four-year university in the Fall. She contributes to a weekly column in a local newspaper where her articles covering political and social topics are widely read. She is presently under consideration by two literary journals.

Samantha Boardman, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
The Space between Want and Have (WRHC Award, Digital Art)
Samantha is a freshman who loves using Photoshop to create many different kinds of works.

Gilberto Cardenas, Orange Coast College
In a Land Far, Far Away…
Gilberto is currently majoring in Math and is looking for a way to include Photography in his studies.

Elaine Chou, University of California, Irvine
Cancerous
Elaine is a senior studying English Literature with an emphasis in Creative Writing.

Sara Cobble, University of New Mexico
Vanishing Acts
Sara is a writer, dancer, and soon-to-be graduate who is constantly seeking the spotlight, the bright side, and more coffee. She is grateful for all the wonderful opportunities Scribendi has given her.

Michelle Do, California State University, Fullerton
October Flame
The Harvest (Staff Choice Award, Short Fiction)
Witchdance
Michelle is a freshman majoring in Piano Performance.

Lansing Dodd, Orange Coast College
Le Voyage
The Shadow of 207
Lansing is majoring in Architecture. Lansing has, since childhood, held a deep appreciation for and fascination with the world of art. She has a passion for drawing, painting, photography, writing, and traveling in order to learn about new forms of art and the histories behind them. She frequently attends the opera and enjoys singing and playing the flute.

Max D’Onofrio, University of Wyoming
Back Country (Staff Choice Award)
Max is majoring in Political Science. He also writes for the student newspaper.

Hesham Elnagar, Northern Arizona University
Kiwi Sunrise
Hesham is a senior Music major and Mathematics minor. His music emphases include Vocal Study and Musicology. He will graduate in May 2009 and begin graduate work in Musicology before he begins his year of study abroad as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar. Hesham is currently a student board member on the NCHC Board of Directors.

Micah Gjeltema, University of New Mexico
Yellow
The Dog
Graveyards
Micah is a Creative Writing major who aspires to write fiction novels. He throws most of his time at music and doesn’t get enough sleep.

Priscilla Hawkins, Cochise College
Alaskan Currency
Priscilla is a student, a registered respiratory therapist, and a mother of three. She lives on a ranch near the Mexican border. Writing short stories and poems provides a cool reprieve in the dry, desolate heat of Southern Arizona.

Bill Hutchison, University of New Mexico
Outland & Periphery: A Love Story (WRHC Award, Essay/Creative Nonfiction)
Bicycles of Stockholm #8
Bill is a writer and student in Santa Fe, NM. He is finishing a double major in English and Philosophy.

Angela Kane, Chapman University
Power Trip
Angela is from Corona, CA. She has a deep passion for photography and feels truly blessed that she was given artistic talent. She hopes to utilize it in any opportunity that comes her way.

Justin Kielbasa, University of California, Riverside
Seven Days a Week
Justin is currently majoring in Creative Writing. Besides writing, photography is also a passion of his, and he hopes to one day make use of those interests through his career.

Shelby Kinney-Lang, University of Wyoming
Galatea de las esferas de las palabras de la historia
Shelby is a sophomore on exchange to the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. His majors are English, Philosophy, and (possibly) Environment and Natural Resources. Using art, education, and science, he aspires to positively impact the world.

Ainsley Nix, Washington State University
Masculinity (WRHC Award, Visual Art)
Ainsley is a senior studying Speech and Hearing Sciences and Photography. She has spent her entire life in Washington State where she plans to eventually attend graduate school in the field of Speech and Hearing Sciences.

Thomas O’Gara, Northern Arizona University
Washed Away
Les Muses
Thomas is a senior currently finishing degrees in Psychology and French, but art is his true passion in life. Thomas has shown paintings at several university showcases and recently had his first exhibition in a small restaurant in Albi, France.

Robby J. Ortiz, University of New Mexico
2009 Scribendi Front and Back Cover Design
Robby is a junior majoring in English and Philosophy and dabbling in Voice. He is a member of the national Christian fraternity Kappa Upsilon Chi, a resident advisor, and Golden Key member. In his spare time, Robby enjoys all forms of physical activity, playing music, and spending time with his girlfriend and his family. He gives God glory for all his blessings and accomplishments.

Jordan Parro, University of New Mexico
9 to 5
Jordan is a dual Philosophy and Mathematics major. Born and raised in Albuquerque, he aspires to study Philosophy of Math in graduate school. Currently, he attends City on a Hill church.

Rachel Rawn, University of Montana
The Quilt
Rachel lives in Missoula, MT, where she is renting a broken refrigerator that won’t keep her ice cream frozen. Fortunately, her heater is also broken, so she is able to keep ice cream frozen in her living room during the winter.

Robert Redd, California State Polytechnic University
Robert has long longed to be something of the C.S. Lewis sort: a man as intellectual as he was religious, still holding forum on the human condition nearly forty-five years after his passing. Robert, a fourth-year English major playwright-to-be in love, prays heartily for a legacy half as grand as Lewis’.
Dance Descanso, Part One (Editors’ Choice Award)
The Crook of the Cross

Ben Riggs, University of New Mexico
Still Life, with Obstruction (WRHC Award)
Ben celebrates insects, except when they get in his house, or anywhere near his person. He is a senior Media Arts major and Biology and Psychology minor. He wants to teach.

Leah Rosenkranz, Washington State University
Streets of Beijing (WRHC Award, Photography)
Leah is from the small town of Hockinson, WA, just across the border from the dynamic Portland, OR. She grew up surrounded by art, participating in ballet and music, and dabbling in different forms of visual arts. Leah is now exploring all the possibilities for her future.

Amanda Stewart, University of Wyoming
A Bee without Wings
Amanda is a freshman and Art major. She has always enjoyed writing in her spare time.