Announcement of 2021 Braly Award Winners

We are proud to announce the 2021 Braly Award winners: Harley Nguyen (poetry), Ivan "Blue" Perez (fiction), and Clair Volkening (nonfiction). Congratulations on this well-deserved creative achievement! Read on for titles and author bios, as well as a linked PDF of their award-winning pieces.

The Malcolm C. Braly Creative Writing Award was established to honor the memory of Malcolm C. Braly, who was a member of the UMBC English Department until his death in 1980. Awards are made each year in fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction.

This year's award process was directed by Sally Shivnan. The judges were Ryan Bloom, Aditya Desai, Mike Fallon, Keegan Finberg, Kate Lashley Fischer, Tanya Olson, and Lia Purpura.

2021 Malcolm C. Brady Award Winners

The Braly Award for Poetry: "Cycling" by Harley Nguyen

Harley is a senior studying English on the Literature track. Influenced primarily by poets of color such as Ocean Vuong and Jamila Woods, he hopes that other readers are affected by their poetry as he has been. He hopes to have a future in publishing, or at the very least, wherever writing happens.

The Braly Award for Fiction: "Whiskey and Ice" by Ivan "Blue" Perez

My name is Ivan "Blue" Perez and I am a Senior English Major with minors in Ancient Studies and Writing. I have always loved stories in any form, be it short stories, novels, movies, TV shows, or my personal favorite, video games. Now that I spent my life consuming and discussing stories, I'm ready to start sharing some of my own!

The Braly Award for Nonfiction: "The Bridge" by Clair Volkening

Clair Volkening is an English major on the Communication and Technology track. She loves books, the word “haberdashery”, and music. Although she is unsure where she will go after college, she is very excited to find out.