Literary tribute to former student

The 11th Dan Hemingway Prize was presented tonight (Friday 28 February 2003) at a reception hosted by the University of St Andrews.

The prize was presented by Dr John and Mrs Sue Hemingway who initiated the prize in 1992 in memory of their son Dan, a former undergraduate at St Andrews who was killed in a cycling accident. The £300 prize is awarded annually for the best, original short story submitted by an undergraduate student at the University.

This year’s winner – who beat off competition from nearly 30 entrants from all Faculties of the University – is Hannah Buckley, a final year student in the School of English, for her entry “Incidental Music”. To celebrate the first decade of the prize, the Hemingway family hope to publish a collection of the winning entries later this year.

In the particulars for the prize the family state: “Dan Hemingway (2.6.72-25.12.91) spent only one term as an undergraduate at St Andrews, but he enjoyed it to the full both academically and socially. Whilst cycling to his home near Oxford shortly after midnight on Christmas Eve 1991, he was killed instantly when hit from behind by a motorist.

“His interests and talents were eclectic, and his powers of human observation and insight quite remarkable. He listened to Bob Dylan, played Beethoven and blues on the piano, and read Wodehouse avidly. His passion was literature, of all styles and periods, and he first started to write short stories and novels at the age of sixteen. Whether or not his final output would have fulfilled his early potential we will now never know.

“The Annual Prize at St Andrews has been established in Dan’s memory by his family and friends. It is intended as one small encouragement to other young writers who have the promise and ambition to make a lasting contribution.”

The prize was judged this year by John Burnside, Kathleen Jamie, A L Kennedy and Professor Douglas Dunn, all of the School of English, and by Mrs Sue Hemingway.

Issued by Beattie Media on behalf of the University of St Andrews For more information please contact: Claire Grainger on 01334 462530, 07730 415 015 or email cg24@st- andrews.ac.uk View University press releases on- line at http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk Ref: danhemingway.2003/standrews/chg/28f eb2003