Hiram College's The Lindsay-Crane Center for Writing and Literature

04/05/2026

Join us on Wednesday for this year's Evening of Hiram Writers. Winners from this year's writing contests will read from their work.

01/13/2026

Congratulations to the Winners of Hiram College’s High School Writing Contest!

Sponsored by the Lindsay-Crane Center for Writing and Literature in Conjunction with the Community Reading Program: Reflecting on Humans’ Place in the World

First Place: Kylee Washington for “Notebooks”
Second Place: Samantha Barker for “The Stars in the Sky”
Third Place: Conner Hunt for “Wheelchair Basketball”

Best Essay with a Portage County Focus: Kyle Crisman for “Lack of a Turnpike Exit"
Best Essay with a Nature or Sustainability Focus: Katelynne Holliday for “Rescue or Retail”
Honorable Mentions:
Chloe Elder for “Coloured Movies”
Anayah Davis for “U-haul”

Please join us on Wednesday, April 9 at 6:30 pm for an Evening of Hiram Writers when we will celebrate these winners!

12/17/2025

Congratulations to the winners of the Lindsay-Crane Creative Nonfiction Contest!
Sponsored by the Lindsay-Crane Center for Writing and Literature
Judged by Author and Emerita Professor of English Joyce Dyer

First Place: Carly DeMille for “The Religion of Bees and Amelia Earhart”
Second Place: Dylan Baumgardner for “Comfort Food”
Third Place: Levi Kowalski for “Arboretum”
Honorable Mentions:
Abby Iser for “My Genetic Monster”
Andrew Madden for “Clocktower Conspiracy”

We invite you to hear these writers read an excerpt from their work at An Evening of Hiram Writers on Wednesday, April 8 at 6:30 pm along with winners of other Hiram College writing contests.

12/15/2025

Congratulations to the following winners of the UCS Writing Contest!
Sponsored by the Lindsay-Crane Center for Writing and Literature
Connected to Reflecting on Humans’ Place in the World: A Community Reading Program

First Place: Rayna Lambert for “4-H”
Second Place: Meaghan Kelly for “Darkness and the Gaze of Death”
Third Place: Faith Brewer for “Before All the Screens: The Radio”
Best Essay with a Sustainability Theme: Ryan Doerner for “My Special Shovel”
Honorable Mentions:
Reggie Johnson for “Press A to Start Childhood”
Stefanie Shields for “The Five Nights at Freddy’s Lore"

We invite you to hear these writers read a short excerpt from their essays at An Evening of Hiram Writers on Wednesday, April 8 at 6:30 pm along with winners of other Hiram College writing contests.

11/10/2025

Happy Birthday to Nicholas Vachel Lindsay, one of the two poets for whom Hiram College's Lindsay-Crane Center for Writing and Literature is named. Vachel Lindsay attended Hiram College for three years in the late 1800s. He eventually became famous as a traveling poet who performed his works before audiences in exchange for room and board and is cited as a significant force for reviving Midwestern poetry and poetry as an oral tradition in the United States.

Nicholas Vachel Lindsay, born on November 10, 1879 in Springfield, Illinois, was an American poet known for his public recitations and itinerant lifestyle.

09/19/2025

Our first event is Monday! Join us!

09/15/2025

The start of our community reading program is right around the corner! Check below for information about our events! If you don't have a copy of John Green's The Anthropocene Reviewed, we're handing out copies at participating libraries and at some of our early events, such as Making a Forest for Humans on September 25 and our Keynote on September 30.

Community reading program: Reflecting on Humans’ Place in the World Image: Reading the Rust Belt September 22-October 29, 2025 A community reading program focused on John Green’s The Anthropocene Reviewed The word “Anthropocene” is unofficially used to describe the most recent period in Eart...

07/29/2025

Are you a John Green fan? Keep an eye on this space because Hiram College's Lindsay-Crane Center for Writing and Literature is hosting a community reading program focused on John Green's The Anthropocene Reviewed this fall. Great events on campus and around Portage County to discuss and learn more about this amazing book!

04/12/2025

Thanks to everyone who joined us to celebrate the winners of our writing contests at the Evening of Hiram Writers on Wednesday, April 9! Nine students read from essays, stories, and poems as the kickoff event for Hiram College's annual Sugar Day event.

03/21/2025

Please congratulate the winners of the
Barbara Thompson Award in Short Fiction

Judged by Alysandra Dutton ’15

1st: “The Light on My Skin” by Carly DeMille
2nd: “Ticonderoga” by Dylan Baumgardner
3rd: “Hiccups Call for Peanut Butter” by Adam Ellis
Honorable Mention: “New Suburbia” by Andrew Madden
Honorable Mention: “Experiencing Elsworth” Rayna Lambert


You are invited to hear winners of Hiram's creative writing contests read from their work at An Evening of Hiram Writers on Wednesday, April 9 at 6:30 pm in the Pritchard Room of the Hiram College Library.

This contest is sponsored by Douglas and Robin Thompson in honor of Barbara Thompson '77 and Ruth Thompson.

02/14/2025

We at Hiram College's Lindsay-Crane Center for Writing and Literature love romance, but we loved this list too. Which literary couple would you add?

All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way, Tolstoy wrote. Same goes for couples. That is, the bad ones may be very bad, but they sure make for some great stories—p…