Bestselling author Angie Thomas has surprised an incoming freshman with news that the young woman is receiving a full scholarship to the private university where Thomas earned her bachelor’s degree.
Thomas popped into an online meeting on Monday to tell Andrea Foreman of Wilmington, Delaware, about the award that will cover tuition, room and board for four years at Belhaven University in Jackson, Mississippi.
This is the second year for Belhaven to award the Angie Thomas Writers Scholarship to a student who will major in creative writing.
Belhaven established the scholarship to honour Thomas, a 2011 graduate who has written the young adult bestselling novels The Hate U Give and On the Come Up . Her new novel, Concrete Rose , was published in January.
“Your submission package was just incredible,” Thomas told Foreman. “It absolutely blew me away. ... You are truly, truly gifted, and I have no doubt that the creative writing program was created for someone like you, and that you’re just going to succeed and soar.”
A smiling Foreman thanked Thomas and told her, “It’s so nice to meet you. Oh, my gosh.”
The Belhaven creative writing chairman, Randall Smith, said in a university news release on Tuesday that Foreman has shown “passion for writing, a distinct voice, the ability to realiSe complex and nuanced characters on the page and gutsy determination to pursue creative transparency.”
