For a quarter of a century, Hair Trigger has featured the best of the best from student writing generated in Story Workshop® and other classes in the Fiction Writing Department. Edited by top students in the program who work with a faculty advisor, this magazine has maintained a standard of excellence unrivaled by similar journals from the nation's best creative writing programs. Sixteen issues entered in national competitions have resulted in eighteen major awards, including first-place prizes from the Coordinating Council of Literary Magazines (CCLM), the Columbia University Scholastic Press Association (CSPA), and the Associate Writing Programs (AWP). In addition, students appearing in its pages have won numerous individual awards for excellence, including over 60 individual awards from CSPA alone (three times sweeping the Traditional Fiction, Experimental Fiction, and creative-nonfiction Essay categories of this competition) - a record testifying to the quality and range of writing by Columbia College Chicago Fiction Writing Department students.

Kinchem Hegedus was selected as the winner of the David Friedman Memorial Award for her story "Bittersweet" in Hair Trigger 27. The David Friedman Award offers a cash prize for the best story or essay published in Hair Trigger each year. This fund was established in the fall of 2002 as a memorial to David Friedman, a talented writer, painter, and alumnus of Columbia College Chicago and the Fiction Writing Department.

Kinchem Hegedus