Westminster Man Wins $65K Sophie Kerr Literary Prize

CHESTERTOWN, Md. (AP) -- An English and theater major at Washington College has been named the winner of the nation's largest literary prize for undergraduates.

Twenty-two-year-old Reilly D. Cox of Westminster was the winner of this year's Sophie Kerr Prize. Cox was chosen from five finalists to be awarded the $65,770 prize at a ceremony Friday.

Cox's submitted portfolio included poems, his playwriting these and his English thesis on erasure poetry.

Cox says he plans to get a copy editing job with a publication in Baltimore and continuing to be involved in theater.

The award recognizes a graduating senior at the Chestertown school who shows the greatest promise for a future in literary endeavor.

Sophie Kerr was a Maryland native who left much of her estate to Washington College when she died in 1965.

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