Veronica Ruse, a Drake Community Library Assistant, has won first prize, a $1,000 Student Scholarship, from the Ruth Suckow Memorial Association.
The announcement and Award Ceremonies came Saturday in Cedar Falls during the Centennial Celebration of the publication of Ruth Suckow’s first novel, Country People.
Ruse is a graduate student in Library Science at the University of Iowa. The Scholarship Award went to the author of the best Iowa student essay on Country People or on one or more of five Suckow short stories.
“Ruse’s winning essay on the novel, titled ‘August and Emma Kaetterhenry: A Farm Marriage Examined,’ will be posted on the ruthsuckow.org website in the coming weeks,” said Dr. Barbara Lounsberry, President of the Ruth Suckow Memorial Association now in its 58th years. “We feel it is almost fate that Veronica’s essay won first prize in the blind statewide judging, for Ruth Suckow graduated from Grinnell High School in 1910 and went on to study at Grinnell College.”
Ruse asked that the $500 Teachers Award accompanying the first prize be given to the Grinnell High School English Department. Jennie Flinspach, GHS English Department Head, accepted the Award in Cedar Falls.
The Drake Community Library will be hosting the Ruth Suckow Traveling Exhibit from January 12 through February 9, 2025. Events planned during the Exhibit include book club discussion of Country People, a Reader’s Theatre performance of Suckow’s short story “A Great Mollie” directed by Jennie Flinspach, and an opening Exhibit talk on Suckow’s Grinnell novella A Part of the Institution by Dr. Michael Hustedde, Emeritus Professor of English at St. Ambrose University.