Martha Carstensen Named Undergraduate Winner of Felix Christopher McKean Memorial Award

The Program in Creative Writing and Translation is pleased to announce that Martha Carstensen has been awarded the undergraduate Felix Christopher McKean Memorial Award for her poem, "Like a Lamb."

Carstensen says she drew inspiration for the work from her upbringing "on a farm … seeing how food is processed from the very beginning and how it is necessary to pay homage to the animals being consumed and the farmers that raise them."

The award was founded in 1945 to honor the memory of McKean, an Arkansas native of Lockesburg who, while studying foreign languages, business, and mathematics at the U of A, discovered a passion for writing poetry. After McKean was killed in the line of duty during World War II, his mother established the award with funds from his serviceman life insurance, stipulating that it be granted to students as a literary award for poetry.