Students at the UA have received honors for their work before, but never quite like UA alumna Meaghan Mulholland, a graduate of the Master of Fine Arts program this past spring.

Mulholland is the 2010 winner of Playboy magazine’s annual College Fiction Contest with her short story “Woman, Fire and the Sea.” She was given $3,000, and her story is published in the October 2010 College issue of Playboy.

“[The contest] has been a part of that college issue for many years now, and it is one of the only contests of its kind that just allows college students to express their creativity and write fiction and be able to have the chance to be published in a national magazine such as Playboy magazine,” said Steve Mazeika, the junior publicist for Playboy Enterprises, Inc.

Mulholland beat out 500 other submissions with her fluid writing style and the strong theme of her story, Mazeika said, which is tagged as “A tale of multiple misunderstandings set on the French Riviera.”

Mulholland entered the contest while at the UA for the opportunities it provides and the magazine’s track record of publishing upstanding literature, including works by Kurt Vonnegut, author of “Slaughterhouse-Five.” Mulholland is using the award to get her work into the hands of readers and to help her continue writing her novel.

“I’ve been working really hard on my book for the past few years, and the writing life can be so solitary and full of angst, so it’s nice to have a moment of recognition like this,” Mulholland said, “[The money] is going to help me to keep working on my novel for a while, now that I’m done with grad school.”

There was no lack of support or encouragement felt by Mulholland from her professors or advisors at the university while she prepared and perfected her entry or after winning the contest.

“They were really pleased [when I won]. They’ve all been wonderfully supportive throughout my whole time in the writing program,” Mulholland said. “My winning this contest is in part a testament to the fantastic faculty in the UA’s MFA program, especially Molly Giles, Skip Hays and Ellen Gilchrist, who’ve really helped my writing to improve. I’m so grateful for the lessons they’ve taught me.”

Playboy, however, does have a reputation for things other than literature, and both Mazeika and Mulholland are well aware of that fact.

“We always like to tell people there are great articles as well, in addition to the women that we have. We just try to have a wide variety of different editorial content,” Mazeika said.

“Playboy has a long tradition of publishing great writing, but I do get a kick out of picturing people like my parents and in-laws asking for the magazine at the newsstand. And they’re getting a kick out of telling people that their daughter is in Playboy,” Mulholland said.

“Woman, Fire and the Sea” is set in the French Riviera, a place that Mulholland has experienced first-hand which fueled the storyline.

“I did go to the French Riviera the summer after I graduated from college,” Mulholland said,.“My friend and I stayed on her uncle’s boat, and that’s basically where the idea for the story came from.”

Mulholland wrote the first draft for the story after that summer, and eventually that preliminary work morphed into the award-winning story that can now be found in the October issue of Playboy or online through Playboy’s digital edition, both of which are available now.