FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Bridget Cooley, Director
Pollard Memorial Library
401 Merrimack Street
Lowell, MA 01852
978-674-1548
bcooley@lowelllibrary.org
Title: Paul Kram Wins 2026 Elinor Lipman Award for Writing and Kacy Zurkus wins the Elinor Lipman Distinguished Mention
Award
Place: Pollard Memorial Library, 401 Merrimack Street, Lowell, MA 01852
LOWELL - The Pollard Memorial Library Foundation is delighted to announce that the winner of the fifth Elinor Lipman Award for Writing is Paul Kram and Kacy Zurkus is the recipient of the Elinor Lipman Distinguished Mention Award, both are residents of Lowell, MA. The Lipman Award will be presented on Thursday, November 19, at 6:00 p.m., in the Community Room of the Pollard Memorial Library.
This annual award honors Elinor Lipman, a distinguished, prolific, and much-loved author born and raised in Lowell, by awarding a prize of $1,000 for a work of fiction or creative non-fiction written by a Lowell resident or a student at Middlesex Community College or the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. The submissions were reviewed in a blinded manner by the judges: Elinor Lipman; literary editor Pilar Garcia-Brown; and the 2022 Lipman Award winner, poet Lillian-Yvonne Bertram. For more information about the judges, please see: https://lowelllibrary.org/get-involved/foundation/elinor-lipman-award/.
The judges selected the story entitled “Why Randi Got Rid of Her Van” by Paul Kram. Ms. Lipman writes that the story “is a smart, unprettified page-turner that feels authentic, cinematic, and often arresting. Told from a murderer’s point of view, the novel’s literary bravery surprised and impressed the judges.”
Kacy Zurkus’s “Aimee,” an excerpt from a longer work entitled “No One Believed Her,” was selected for the Distinguished Mention Award. “Grappling with urgent subjects in a confident and nuanced way,” writes Ms. Lipman, “Aimee” is a moving piece that encourages us to think deeply about shame, guilt, and how we show up for others and ourselves.”
The Lipman Award recognizes the importance of literacy and learning in the City of Lowell for the lives of its residents. The prize is funded by the Pollard Memorial Library Foundation.
For more information, please email LipmanAward@gmail.com.
The Pollard Memorial Library Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that raises funds to supplement the budget provided by the City of Lowell to the Pollard Memorial Library, Lowell’s public library. This additional funding helps ensure that the Library achieves its goal of excellence in providing service to Lowell residents.
Our Mission
The mission of the Pollard Memorial Library Foundation is to secure the additional funding necessary to ensure that the library achieves its goal of excellence in providing service to the citizens of the Greater Lowell Community through the next century.
Goals
To provide support and maintenance to the Pollard Memorial Library, the public library of the City of Lowell, Massachusetts. To provide funds and services which supplement but do not replace customary support of the Pollard Memorial Library by the City of Lowell. To engage in fundraising for the support of the Pollard Memorial Library, its goals and activities.