Davis McCombs’ manuscript “Dismal Rock” recently won the 2005 Dorset Prize of $10,000, the largest cash prize in the United States for an unpublished book of poetry. The prize also includes publication of the manuscript in fall 2007. McCombs was a Henry Hoyns Fellow while he earned his M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Virginia. McCombs teaches in the Creative Writing Program at the University of Arkansas. Full story.

Inside UVA

Earl Washington Jr. sat on death row for nine years, coming within nine days of execution after being wrongfully convicted due to a false confession. With the help of University of Virginia law students Kate Stanley (left) and Meredith Horton (right), Washington, one of 175 people nationwide to be exonerated through postconviction DNA testing, was awarded $2.25 million by a federal circuit court in Charlottesville, the first-ever verdict quantifying damages for pain and suffering caused by being on death row wrongfully. Washington’s trial offered law students a true-life example of what can go wrong — and right — in the American legal system. Full story.

U.Va. Law School