The Sophie Kerr Prize
The Nation's Largest Undergraduate Literary Award
Graduation Day 1997
In 1997, I won the Sophie Kerr Prize at Washington College. The prize is the nation's largest undergraduate literary award, and it is given to the graduating senior deemed to have the highest literary potential in his class.
Media Attention
Since 1997 was also the 30th anniversary of the prize, I received some media attention. Profiles on me appeared in the Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, Frederick New-Post, Star Democrat, and other mid-Atlantic papers. The most flattering attention I received, however, was from NPR.
The Sophie Kerr Prize is traditionally announced at graduation, but that year the school learned that Susan Stamberg of "All Things Considered" wanted to air an interview with the winner just after graduation--which meant it had to be recorded a few days in advance.
I was told in secret that I had won, and Professors Bob Day and Richard Gillin requested that I not tell any friends or family members. It was a long hard weekend keeping my mouth shut while everyone speculated on who had won. Day and Gillin drove me down to the old Customs House, a gutted old building on the shore of the Chester River in downtown Chestertown, where I gave a clandestine interview in a room that contained nothing but a small table, one chair, and a heavy black telephone.
Below is a full transcript of the interview.
National Public Radio
"All Things Considered"
May 18, 1997
LITERARY AWARDS
SUSAN STAMBERG, NPR REPORTER: The Wendy or Wendell Wasserstein of tomorrow may be graduating today from Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland. For the past three decades, that small liberal arts school on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay has been giving a prize to the graduating senior with the most literary promise. It's a big prize: nearly $30,000, the largest undergraduate literary prize in the country.
This morning, it was awarded to Brandon Hopkins. He wrote a coming-of-age novel set in Europe and submitted it as his humanities thesis. He joins us now. All sorts of congratulations to you, Mr. Hopkins.What a day! A B.A. from Washington College and a five-figure literary prize, all in one day. That's not bad.
BRANDON HOPKINS, THIRTIETH ANNUAL RECIPIENT, SOPHIE KERR PRIZE: Not bad at all. Yeah, I'm very pleased.
STAMBERG: You should be. Well, tell us about your book. Who is the hero?
HOPKINS: Well, the hero's a person based on myself, a character based on myself, who's traveling around in Europe for a year abroad while he's studying. And he has a series of adventures and misadventures with various characters in different countries.
STAMBERG: Did you do that yourself, spend a year traveling?
HOPKINS: Yes, for the academic year from 1995 to 1996 I was in Mainz, Germany, studying German and French.
STAMBERG: Could we hear a sample of your writing, this prize-winning writing? Would you read a little bit to us?
HOPKINS: Sure. I've got a section here, which is from my third chapter, which takes place in a small café.
"It was a pleasant place for me to sit and write into my journal. I had been in a few times before. Each time I'd noticed the same group of Moroccans sitting in the back corner next to the window. I sat near them, just to listen to the exhilarating cadences of their speech.
"That day, I stayed longer than usual. I was writing about how, after my first two weeks in Mainz, I had realized that day for the first time a string of small mountains running alongside the horizon. I hadn't been able to see them before because of the mist, which had obscured them every day since I'd arrived. They were mere foothills, really, vainglorious attempts at mountains. They were failures, but they had dignity.
"Then one of the Moroccans called me from the next table.
" 'What are you writing there?' he asked.
"He immediately jumped up from his place and joined me at my table. He turned my journal around and took a gander at what I'd written.
" 'You English?' he asked.
" 'American,' I responded.
" 'American?' he shouted. 'You don't look American. You look English. Ah, it's better to be American.'
" 'Why's that?' I asked, pretending to ignore the fact that he was slipping through reading bits and pieces of what I'd written.
" 'I prefer Americans over others. The Germans? They think from here down.' He motioned to his pelvis.
" 'The Japanese,' he motioned a bit higher, 'from here. But Americans? With Americans, everything is with head.' He tapped his forehead. " 'Everything with head with Americans.'
"I hadn't the slightest what he meant by that. But I smiled and laughed along with him anyway."
(LAUGHTER)
STAMBERG: You got me hooked! I want to know more! Thank you very much for reading that to us.
HOPKINS: Thank you.
STAMBERG: What's the first thing you are going to read now that you've graduated and can read anything you want, not just read on assignment?
HOPKINS: Let's see. Well, right now, I'm going to--I'm reading The Rhetoric of Fiction, which is criticism. And as for novels, I don't know. Maybe I'll go to the beach and pick up some Danielle Steele or something.
STAMBERG: The perfect, the perfect thing to do!
Thank you very much, and congratulations again to you.
HOPKINS: Thank you.
STAMBERG: Brandon Hopkins is the thirtieth recipient of the Sophie Kerr Prize, awarded this morning to the Washington College graduating senior who is judged to have the most promise as a writer. He spoke with us from the campus in Chestertown, Maryland.
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