Michelle Obama Award for Memoir’s First Recipient Is Madison Corzine
Madison Corzine, a sixteen-year-old Timber Creek High School graduate, was the first recipient of the Michelle Obama Award for Memoir.
The Michelle Obama Award for Memoir was created with Penguin Random House, recognizing one public high school senior’s literary composition in English of a memoir or personal essay. The recipient of the annual award receives a $10,000 college scholarship.
According to a press release about the award, President of Crown David Drake stated the award hopes to “encourage students to discover and cherish the power of their own voice through storytelling.” The award resembles Obama’s motives for her “Get Her There” campaign, which encourages young women to reach their full potential through education.
On June 6, Michelle Obama posted on Instagram, announcing Corzine as the award’s first recipient. Her essay was titled “What I Wish I Knew: A Suburban Black Girl’s Guide.” Obama posted Corzine’s read of the essay to Instagram.
Corzine began her essay by describing Black stereotypes that she noticed she had to fit herself, or a stereotype would be assigned to her. She discussed the struggles of engaging with peers, teachers, and her society in a predominantly white community. Corzine ended her memoir with notes of encouragement, motivating other young Black women to embody their personalities confidently rather than shrink their identities.
Obama described Corzine’s memoir as “fearless” on Twitter. She celebrated the young graduate’s ability to be vulnerable about her life experiences in writing.
On both Obama’s Instagram and Twitter, she said that Corzine would be attending Spelman College in the fall. She plans to study English and Political Science, working towards a career as a civil rights attorney.
I’m excited to share that Madison Corzine is the first-ever recipient of the Michelle Obama Award for Memoir!
— Michelle Obama (@MichelleObama) June 6, 2023
Madison is a recent graduate from Timber Creek High School in Fort Worth, Texas. In the fall, she will be attending @SpelmanCollege, where she plans to study English and… pic.twitter.com/9sPXWkl3QG
This award was one of five creative writing awards from Penguin Random House. The other categories were fiction/drama, the Amanda Gorman Award for Poetry, the Maya Angelou Award for Spoken Word, and the New York City Entrant Award.
