Ava Ambrose Tomasula y Garcia, 14, of South Bend, has been selected as the winner of the 2009 Virginia B. Ball Creative Writing Competition. As the winner, she will receive a $30,000 scholarship to attend Interlochen Arts Academy, a fine arts boarding high school in northern Michigan. A selection from her portfolio will be published in the 2010 Interlochen Review.
Starting in the fall, Tomasula will study with a faculty of published authors and other students who share her love for writing. “Other than my own family, not many people have read my writing,” said Tomasula. “I am ecstatic to be able to talk with people my age about writing.”
Mika Perrine, the director of the creative writing program at Interlochen, said 130 entries were received from talented writers around the world. She noted that although Tomasula was one of the youngest writers to enter the contest, her submissions impressed the reviewers. “This was someone who has something to say and has found a distinctive way to say it.” Perrine also noted that Tomasula’s winning submissions showed a keen understanding of the language and a sharp sense of detail. Perrine and other members of the creative writing faculty served as judges for the contest.
Tomasula said she decided to enter the contest after her father, an English professor at Notre Dame, brought home a brochure about it. “Interlochen just seemed like such a haven. I have read the Interlochen Review, which has writing from current Interlochen students. It was unbelievably good.”
