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Creative writing Hopwood Awards announced

  • Jared Wadley

The University Michigan has announced the 2023 graduate and undergraduate winners the Avery and Jule Hopwood Awards in Creative Writing and other writing contests administered by the Hopwood Program.

This year’s contests had 1,005 submissions from 362 people, of which 100 were chosen as winners. The 148 prizes totaled more than $215,000.

An awards ceremony will be held at 5:30 p.m. April 12 at Rackham Auditorium, 915 E. Washington St. Cartoonist and author Alison Bechdel will give a lecture during the ceremony. She will also give a reading at 5:30 p.m. April 11 in Rackham Amphitheatre. Both events are free and open to the public.

The Hopwood Awards are funded by a bequest from Avery Hopwood, a 1905 graduate and successful Broadway playwright, and Jule Hopwood, his mother. Past winners include Arthur Miller, Robert Hayden, Jesmyn Ward and Celeste Ng.

This year’s winners and hometowns include:

  • Hopwood Drama Francisco Fiori, Ann Arbor, for “Tissue Queen”
  • Hopwood Screenplay Aidan Harris, New Rochelle, New York, for “The Derech”
  • Hopwood Novel Yueyi Zhao, St. Louis, for “Underspin”
  • Hopwood Award Theodore Roethke Prize Brian Gyamfi, Grand Prairie, Texas, for “Praxis Breath”
  • Hopwood Poetry (First- and Second-Year Undergraduate) Allison Wei, Troy, Michigan, for “Fish Head”
  • Hopwood Poetry (Undergraduate) Jingqi Zhu, Ann Arbor, for “Candle Tears” Caroline Knight, Durango, Colorado, for “Rainbow Trout, Mimic”
  • Hopwood Poetry (Graduate) Sara Abou Rashed, Columbus, Ohio, for “Cycle”
  • Hopwood Fiction (First- and Second-Year Undergraduate) Lucy Del Deo, New York City, for “Letting Go in the Water”
  • Hopwood Fiction (Undergraduate) Ashvin Pai, Sterling Heights, Michigan, for “Feeding Rocks”
  • Hopwood Fiction (Graduate) Zoe Carpenter, Portland, Oregon, for “Teeth” and “Stone Fruit”
  • Hopwood Nonfiction (First- and Second-Year Undergraduate) Isabela Kellogg, La Jolla, California, for “Confessions Child Who Loved the Learning Channel (Sorry, Mom)”
  • Hopwood Nonfiction (Undergraduate) Sisir Potluri, Ann Arbor, for “Mountain of Gold” and “Winter” Eli Friedman, Wilmette, Illinois, for “A Funny Thing: An Essay Collection”
  • Hopwood Nonfiction (Graduate) Maia Elsner, Ann Arbor, for “Colors Mourning”

Additional Contests

  • Academy American Poets Prize (Graduate Division) Diepreye Amanah, Charlotte, North Carolina, for “OF”
  • Academy American Poets Prize (Undergraduate Division) Yixin Yang, Ann Arbor, for “My mother once said”
  • Arthur Miller Award the University Michigan Club New York Scholarship Fund Camille Nagy, Oak Park, Michigan, for “Reptilian: A ‘Tail’ Transformation and Rebirth”
  • Bain-Swiggett Poetry Prize A Shaikh, Ann Arbor, for “cento sealed into crushed objecthood”
  • Cora Duncan Award in Fiction Safura Syed, Troy, Michigan, for “Atoms at the Edge Darkness”
  • David Porter Award for Excellence in Journalism Ella Kethledge, Novi, Michigan, for “The Phenomenon Social Illness: From Dancing Plagues to Dancing Apps”
  • Frank and Gail Beaver Script Writing Prize Caroline Maier, Portage, Michigan, for “The Last Goodbye”
  • Jeffrey L. Weisberg Memorial Prize in Poetry Jessica Hsu, San Jose, California, for “Buried Home”
  • Kasdan Scholarship in Creative Writing Macy Goller, Ann Arbor, for “King Pearls” Tomi Drucker, Kiryat Ekron, Israel, for “Lia’s Lens” Azul Cibils Blaquier, Ann Arbor, for “Violet”
  • Keith Taylor Excellence in Poetry Award Safa Hijazi, Dearborn, Michigan, for “Let Us Get Lost in the Valleys”
  • Marjorie Rapaport Award in Poetry Yumna Dagher, Dearborn, Michigan, for “When the Angels Left” Zora Kwasnik, East Lansing, Michigan, for “Patrick Bateman Embarrasses Himself In Front Tom Cruise NOT CLICKBAIT”
  • Michael R. Gutterman Award in Poetry Courtney DuChene, Philadelphia, for “Home Movie, Director’s Cut, and Experimental Film as Burning Haibun”
  • Peter Phillip Pratt Award in Fiction Jamila Alasady, Dearborn, Michigan, for “Mama, Mama”
  • Roy W. Cowden Memorial Fellowship Jessica Kwon, Ann Arbor, for “Ghost Stories”
  • Text/Image Composition Prize Bryce Worthing, Ann Arbor, for “The Shark Below is a Portal; and Other Dream Interpretations”

Additional Awards (these awards and prizes are “add-ons” to Hopwood Award contests)

  • Andrea Beauchamp Prize Zoe Carpenter, Portland, Oregon, for “Teeth” and “Stone Fruit”
  • Chamberlain Award for Creative Writing Afsheen Raza Faisal, Ann Arbor, for “Creep,” “Cats,” and “Ladies’ Night” Sara Gee for “What They Don’t Tell You” and “The First Six Sessions Are Free” Marne Litfin, Ann Arbor, for “Daisies” and “The Steeplechase” Oksana Briukhovetska, Kyiv, Ukraine, for “Secrets for Natasha”
  • Dennis McIntyre Prize for Distinction in Undergraduate Playwriting Francisco Fiori, Ann Arbor, for “Tissue Queen” Clare Sahijdak, Novi, Michigan, for “The Stranger” Donovan Rogers, Southfield, Michigan, for “Into the Light the Dark, Black Night” Karis Clark, Kalamazoo, Michigan, for “Kush Man vs. The Man” Maeson Linnert, Menlo Park, California, for “Where Orion Went”
  • Geoffrey James Gosling Prize Yueyi Zhao, St. Louis, for “Underspin”
  • Helen J. Daniels Prize Sisir Potluri, Ann Arbor, for “Mountain of Gold” and “Winter” Eli Friedman, Wilmette, Illinois, for “A Funny Thing: An Essay Collection”
  • Helen S. and John Wagner Prize Sara Abou Rashed, Columbus, Ohio, for “Cycle”
  • John Wagner Prize Maia Elsner, Ann Arbor, for “Colors Mourning”
  • Leonard and Eileen Newman Writing Prize for Dramatic Writing Aidan Harris, New Rochelle, New York, for “The Derech” Morgan Kisner, Oak Park, Michigan, for “I’m Not a Bad Person” Azul Cibils Blaquier, Ann Arbor, for “Violet”
  • Leonard and Eileen Newman Writing Prize for Fiction Ashvin Pai, Sterling Heights, Michigan, for “Feeding Rocks” Jessica Kwon, Ann Arbor, for “Ghost Stories” and “Episodes” Nina Smith, Berkeley, California, for “God and Walter Cronkite” and “Strange Music”
  • Meader Family Award Claudia Creed, Ludlow, SPE, for “Girl becomes a raven becomes a crow” Amanda Hayes, Arlington, Virginia, for “Cnidaria” Courtney DuChene, Philadelphia, for “Graduate Poetry Prize Submission”
  • Naomi Saferstein Literary Award Aidan Harris, New Rochelle, New York, for “The Derech”
  • Paul and Sonia Handleman Award Jingqi Zhu, Ann Arbor, for “Candle Tears” Caroline Knight, Durango, Colorado, for “Rainbow Trout, Mimic”
  • Robert F. Haugh Prize Ashvin Pai, Sterling Heights, Michigan, for “Feeding Rocks”
  • Roy and Helen Meador Award Allison Wei, Troy, Michigan, for “Fish Head”
  • Stanley S. Schwartz Prize Jessica Kwon, Ann Arbor, for “Ghost Stories” and “Episodes”

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Scholarships and Awards in Creative Writing

Thanks to the generosity of various donors, there are a number of awards—available at different stages of a student writer’s career at UNC—designed to make possible continued study at the University and in the Creative Writing Program, and also to reward excellent work in fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction by undergraduate students.

The Thomas Wolfe Scholarship

awards in creative writing

This unprecedented program for student writers—which began in 2002 and is funded at roughly the same level as the University’s prestigious Morehead Scholarship—provides a full scholarship to one incoming student each year for four years including summer research stipends. The scholarship is not limited to fiction writers: applications are welcomed from student poets, playwrights, fiction writers, essayists and journalists across the country, and each Wolfe Scholar will be a young writer who shows extraordinary promise. The scholarship was endowed by Frank Borden Hanes Sr., class of 1942, to honor Wolfe, class of 1920—who as a UNC student edited  The Tar Heel  and wrote and starred in “The Return of Buck Gavin” (one of the first productions of Playmakers Repertory Company), later remembering Chapel Hill fondly in his classic 1929 novel  Look Homeward, Angel —and to support the creative writing program. Students must apply for this scholarship during their senior year of high school. For more information, write Stephanie Elizondo Griest and Gaby Calvocoressi, Co-Directors of The Thomas Wolfe Scholarship Program, or review the scholarship website .

The Wanda Chappell Scholarship

Juniors and seniors are eligible for this award, designed for a student who is an English major and a Creative Writing minor, who qualifies for financial aid from the University, and who demonstrates a serious interest in the publishing world. This scholarship program was initially funded by Random House, in memory of Wanda Chappell ‘81.

The Charles and Rita Collins Scholarship

This is a needs-based award—made possible by Charles D. Collins, MD of Rockingham, N.C.—meant to assist students who are Creative Writing minors.

For more information on the Chappell and Collins Scholarships, please contact the Director of Creative Writing, Ross White .

Currently, there are four literary prizes for seniors at Carolina: the Robert B. House Memorial Prize in Poetry; the Louis D. Rubin, Jr., Prize in Fiction; the Max Steele Award in Fiction; and the Ann Williams Burrus/Academy of American Poets Prize, administered by the AAP in New York.

There are two prizes for juniors: the Blanche Armfield Prize for Poetry, and the George B. Wynne Award for Fiction.

Other annual prizes, each of which comes with a cash award, include: the Bland Simpson Prize in Creative Non-Fiction, awarded to one undergraduate for outstanding literary essays and belles-lettres; the Mini-Max Short-Short Fiction Award, founded by former Creative Writing Program Director Max Steele, a practicioner and proponent of very short fiction, and awarded for complete short stories of no more than 750 words; and the Suzanne Bolch Award, founded by Ben and Ann Bolch in honor of their daughter, filmmaker/producer Suzanne Bolch, which provides summer support to a creative writing minor who seeks to develop an original, independent project designed to stimulate and expand the writer’s imagination and artistic vision.

Bland Simpson Prize in Creative Nonfiction 2023 The Creative Writing Program invites submissions to the annual Bland Simpson competition. Undergraduates are invited to submit creative nonfiction essays of the highest literary standard in such forms as memoir, travel and nature writing, and belles-lettres. You may submit ONE work of nonfiction up to 5,000 words typed in 12-point font and double-spaced. Stories must be submitted to CreativeWriting.@unc.edu by NOON on October 30 Awards: Winner receives $1,000

*Photograph of Thomas Wolfe used by permission of the Estate of Thomas Wolfe and courtesy of the North Carolina Photographic Collection at UNC-CH. Photograph of Davie Poplar courtesy of Jerry Cotten.

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Creative Writing Prizes for Undergraduates

These prizes are awarded at the annual Creative Writing Awards ceremony each May. Please see the next section for submission details .

  • The Sidney Cox Memorial Prize:

The Sidney Cox Memorial Prize is offered annually for that piece of undergraduate writing which most nearly meets those high standards of originality and integrity which Sidney Cox set for himself and for his students in his teaching and in his book, Indirections for Those Who Want to Write.  Any kind of undergraduate writing in English may be submitted; there is no limit to the amount or variety of the material that any individual may submit; and the award is not limited to students majoring or minoring in English.

  •   Academy of American Poets Prize:

 The Academy of American Poets Prize is offered for the best poem or group of poems.

  • Jacobson-Laing Award in Poetry:

The Jacobson-Laing Award will be given to an undergraduate for the "best manuscript of original poems."

  • Lockwood Prize:

Competition for the Lockwood Prize is open to undergraduates classified as Junior. Any form of writing except plays may be submitted. A group of short poems may be considered as one manuscript.

  • Grimes Prize:

Competition for the Grimes Prize is open to undergraduates classified as Senior. Any form of writing except plays may be submitted. A group of short poems may be considered as one manuscript.

  • The William C. Spengemann Award in Writing:

The William C. Spengemann Award in Writing is given for a work of prose or poetry distinguished by its formal precision, as well as its original, innovative, or iconoclastic approach to its subject matter.

  • The Mecklin Prize:

 The Mecklin Prize is for the best student writing in creative nonfiction or journalism. 

  • The Erskine Caldwell Prize:

The Erskine Caldwell prize is awarded to a student(s) whose written work in the short story is most outstanding.     

  • The Ralston Prize

The Thomas Henry Ralston VI Creative Writing Prize is for the most outstanding student in an introductory creative writing class, in any genre (fiction, creative non-fiction, and poetry). Please do not submit to this prize. This prize is selected by creative writing faculty.

Creative Writing Prizes Rules and Instructions

READ CAREFULLY

Please read these submission instructions carefully. Your submission will not be considered if it does not follow the guidelines below. If you have any questions, please email [email protected] .

The deadline to submit to the 2024 Creative Writing Prizes is Wednesday, April 3, 2024 at 4 p.m. ET (Eastern Time) . Submissions will open on Monday, February 5, 2024. Please submit through this online form . You must complete the online submission form (which includes uploading a cover letter and your piece(s) as a single PDF) in order to be considered. See details and rules below.

  • This writing contest is open to all Dartmouth undergraduate students.
  • The PDF must include a cover letter as the first page. The cover letter must include your full name, the titles of each piece, and the prizes you would like each piece to be considered for. See cover sheet sample . The cover letter must match what you enter in the online submission form.
  • Your piece(s) must start on the second page of the PDF. Please title every piece in the document.
  • You must use a minimum of 12 pt font in Times New Roman . Prose submissions must be double-spaced. Poetry submissions may be single-spaced.
  • Your document must include page numbers. Your cover letter should be page 1.
  • Save your work, with the cover letter as the first page, as one PDF document. You may use this template: Creative Writing Prizes Submission PDF Template (note that the template is a Word document, which you can edit, and then save as a PDF).
  • Name the PDF file as lastname_firstname_2024.pdf (e.g., Shakespeare_William_2024.pdf).
  • Upload your PDF to the online submission form. Your PDF upload must match what you submit in the online form. Double check to make sure you have listed the correct titles and prizes in the cover letter, and that you have included the correct pieces in the PDF.
  • Your submission will not be considered if it does not follow the above PDF guidelines.
  • You may submit a maximum of two pieces for consideration . You can submit each piece for multiple prizes. Please read each prize description and eligibility requirements to determine which prizes your piece can be submitted to. You must indicate which prizes you are submitting your pieces to in the online submission form as well as on the cover letter in your PDF.
  • Fiction and creative nonfiction submissions are limited to one short story, or one nonfiction piece, or one chapter of a book length manuscript not to exceed 20 double-spaced typewritten pages. If your submission is an excerpt from a novel or longer piece of writing, please include a 1-page synopsis.
  • A group of poems should have 6-8 poems and the document must not exceed 12 pages single-spaced.
  • Pieces that previously won a Creative Writing Prize cannot be submitted again. They will not be considered.
  • You must submit work that is solely yours. Collaborations are not accepted.

The prize winners will be announced in early May 2024. There will be a prize ceremony with readings on Thursday, May 9, 2024 at 4:30 p.m. in Sanborn Library.

The 2024 Creative Writing Prizes judge is Andrea Cohen . Andrea Cohen is the author of eight poetry collections, including  The Sorrow Apartments , just out with Four Way Books. Other recent books include  Everything  and  Nightshade . Cohen 's poems have appeared in  The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, The Threepenny Review, The Atlantic Monthly,  and elsewhere. Her awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship and several residencies at MacDowell. She directs the Blacksmith House Poetry Series in Cambridge, MA and is teaching at Boston University this spring.

Past Winners

View past Creative Writing Prize winners .

Villanova University

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English student holding up award

Each year the English department recognizes graduate and undergraduate students for their distinguished poetry, fiction and academic essays.

Congratulations to our 2023 award winners!

Theo Campbell ’23 MA received the Margaret Powell Esmonde Memorial Award, recognizing the best graduate essay, for their paper, "'Not Man: Woman': Freeing Leopold Bloom from Her Closet."

Cynthia Choo '23 CLAS and Sarina Sandwell '23 CLAS (above)  won the Jerome J. Fischer Memorial Award, recognizing the best undergraduate essay, for their papers, "Eve's Beauty: Fallen or Sublime" and "Silence as a Manifestation of Sexual Trauma in The Waste Land ."

Makena Kerns ’24 CLAS received the George D. Murphy Award in Creative Writing.

Dylan McMahon ’24 CLAS  received the English/Honors Creative Writing Award.

Ava Lundell '23 CLAS received the Medallion of Excellence.  

You can check out additional coverage of our most-recent awards ceremony on our blog .

LISTING OF AWARDS

The medallion of excellence.

The Edward McGrath Medallion, the English Department’s Medallion of Excellence, goes to the graduating senior whom the department selects for outstanding overall performance in the major.

2023 - Ava Lundell 2022 - Chloe Mikye Cherry 2021 - Shivani Patel 2020 - Joanne Hwangbo 2019 - Caroline Grace Stagliano 2018 - Elizabeth Eby 2017 - Stephen J. Purcell 2016 - Emma Pettit 2014 - John Szot 2014 - Christine V. Tergis 2013 - Alexa I Pastor 2012 - Theresa Donohoe and Nicole Battisti 2011 - Molly Schreiber 2010 - Max Stendahl 2009 - Joe R. Gonzalez 2008 - Angela S. Allen 2007 - Emily M. Trovato 2006 - Thomas Emerson 2005 - Kathryn M. Rutigliano 2004 - John Durnin 2003 - Mari Grace Crosby 2002 - Michael Foley 2001 - Kristin Suga 2000 - Christine Anderson 1999 - Thomas McKinley 1998 - John Giordano and Megan Norcia 1997 - Lisa Tomaszewski 1996 - Mark Spoonauer 1995 - Kelly Beissel

The Fischer Award for for an undergraduate essay

The Jerome J. Fischer Memorial Award is given annually to the most distinguished undergraduate essay written in a Villanova English course. The Fischer Award honors Jerome J. Fischer, who taught nineteenth-century British literature courses, as well as a variety of other courses, at Villanova from 1947 until his retirement in 1983. He died in 1984.

2023 Winners:  Cynthia Choo is a senior English and Humanities double major with minors in Education and Writing & Rhetoric from Fort Lee, New Jersey. During her time at Villanova, she has participated in the Korean Students Association as treasurer, vice president, and president, in the Office of Intercultural Affairs and Intergroup Relations (IGR) Program as an ambassador, and in the Writing Center as a tutor. She is also a student-affiliate research fellow for the “Taught by Literature” project within the Anne Welsh McNulty Institute for Women’s Leadership. Upon graduating, she will attend Teachers College at Columbia University to obtain her master’s degree in Education and teaching certification for secondary education!

Sarina Sandwell is a senior English major with minors in Peace & Justice and Chinese from North Haven, Connecticut. She works as a wardrobe manager in Villanova Theatre's costume shop and as a tutor in Villanova’s Writing Center. She is passionate about fashion and prison abolition, which often serve as focuses in her reading and writing. Following graduation, Sarina will attend NYU in pursuit of her M.A. in English and American Literature.

Previous Winners:

2022 - Ryan Haggerty and Sarina Sandwell 2021 - Julia Valenti 2020 - Ariana Megerian 2019 - Gracie Stagliano 2018 - Gracie Stagliano 2017 - Blaire Bernstein 2016 - Kevin Madden 2015 - John Szot 2014 - Megan Plevy 2013 - Shanon Welch 2012 - Theresa Donohoe 2011 - Molly Schreiber 2010 - Max Stendahl 2009 - Jamie Kapalko 2008 - Daniel E. Trucil 2007 - Emily Trovato 2006 - Stephen Cornell 2005 - Kristy Wessman 2004 - Mark Napolitano 2003 - Valerie Kate Fernandez 2002 - Rebecca Corcoran 2001 - Michael Foley 2000 - Corinne Welsh 1999 - Jennifer Joyce 1998 - Cara LaColla 1997 - Chris Eagle 1996 - Wendy Anne Tucker 1995 - [not given out] 1994 - Michael DiRuggiero 1993 - Rosemary Scalo 1992 - Mary Kovalchick 1991 - Peter Naccarato 1990 - Sarah Pines 1989 - Anne Marie Ryan 1988 - Jon Lemole 1987 - Jill Stevens

The Esmonde Award for a graduate essay

The Margaret Powell Esmonde Memorial Award is given annually to the most distinguished graduate essay written in a Villanova English course. The Esmonde Award honors Margaret Powell Esmonde, who taught at Villanova from 1974 until her death in 1983. She was a specialist in Renaissance literature who also taught courses in science fiction and children’s literature.

2023 Winner : Theo Campbell is a second year MA student. Their research focuses on the interplay of literature and politics in Ireland in the long nineteenth century. They are also interested in applications of post-colonial theory to the history of healthcare systems. In the fall, Theo will begin pursuing a PhD in English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

2022 - Madie Davids 2021 - Anne Jones 2020 - Olivia Stowell 2019 - Avni Sejpal 2018 - Nicholas Manai 2017 - Laura Tscherry 2016 - AJ DeBonis 2015 - Eric Doyle 2014 - Theodora Hermes 2013 - Rebecca Hepp, Cara Saraco 2012 - Alexandra Edwards 2011 - Benjamin Raymond 2010 - James McAdams 2009 - Don James McLaughlin 2008 - John Breedlove 2008 - Rebecca Steffy 2007 - Rebecca Burnett 2006 - Karen Y. Lee 2005 - Marc Napolitano 2004 - Victor Sensenig 2003 - Deborah Gross 2002 - Brian Sweeney 2001 - Patricia Crouch 2000 - Laura Giuliani 1999 - Sharon Cournoyer 1998 - Marc Schuster 1997 - Mary Ann Quigley 1996 - Robert Duggan, Jr. 1995 - Gale White 1994 - Gale White 1993 - Daniel Hipp 1992 - Helen Goff 1991 - Sr. Elaine Marie Glanz, I.H.M. 1990 - Katrien Conlan 1989 - Janet Wallin 1988 - Anne Gallagher 1987 - Gregory Sullivan 1986 - Ellen Wilmot

The George D. Murphy Award in Creative Writing

The George D. Murphy Award in Creative Writing honors a longtime faculty member in the English department. The winner is chosen each year by a panel of Villanova faculty and a Philadelphia-area writer.  

2023 Winner:  Makena Kerns is a 3rd year student from Seattle, WA majoring in Cultural Studies with minors in English and Asian Studies. When she’s not writing, she enjoys road trips, crafting, and finding new music.

"Dandelion Yellow"

Growing up, we always lived in creaky houses.

I have no memories of my own from our first home,

but mom tells me it was a flat structure

with red walls,

big windows,

and a stream out back where our black lab liked to dig for snails.

Once as a teenager, I made her take me to it,

hoping the sight might evoke some deep seeded memory within me,

but instead I sat in the car with a blank expression on my face.

My first memories are of a time when my family was apart.

Unsure of where my father was or

why his voice sounded so alien when we talked through the phone,

I always held my mom’s hand when we crossed the street.

For a little bit, she and I lived in a small apartment downtown, the interior of which

I can’t recall for the life of me,

but I do remember our frequent walks.

We’d always pass a mural of Jack and Meg White plastered on the side of Archie McFee’s.

Each time, I’d ask her who the two faces belonged to,

not because I forgot the answer,

I just wanted her to sing one of their songs to me again.

Months later, I found myself staring at indiscernible stripes of yellow.

I intentionally pointed at the brightest swatch in front of me when tasked with the decision of what color to paint my bedroom walls, though my options were already limited.

Mom and dad had already settled on a uniform yellow color pallet for our new home together.

Grandma’s favorite color was yellow.

It’s easiest for me to recall that room on a rainy day,

shut inside with my blinds open for the first time in weeks.

I used to love sitting next to my window,

singing in harmony with the rain as I tapped on the glass,

watching smudged fingerprints gather like the snow that never came.  

2022 Winner:  Qiao Kang

About George D. Murphy

The George D. Murphy Award in Creative Writing honors a longtime faculty member in the English department. George D. Murphy, PhD, received his BA in 1949 and MA in 1951 in English from the University of Notre Dame and his PhD in American Civilization from the University of Pennsylvania in 1964. He joined Villanova’s English Department in 1954 and retired in 2000 after 46 years of service. His scholarly publications focused on American writers of the 20th Century. While at Villanova, he was known for his exquisite sense of humor and a singular gift for recalling and recounting a host of humorous tales. While an undergraduate at Notre Dame, he was on the editorial board of its literary magazine— The Juggler of Notre Dame —and contributed a number of poems, short stories and critical essays. He returned to creative writing at the end of his life as a way of coping with grief over his wife’s death and produced many first-rate poems.

English & Honors Award in Creative Writing

The winner of the English and Honors Award in Creative Writing is chosen each year by a panel of Villanova faculty.  

2023 Winner:  Dylan McMahon came to Villanova unsure of what to pursue, and quickly found himself craving a STEM-heavy curriculum open enough to allow him to explore his interests in music and creative writing academically. Thus, he finds himself now a junior mathematics major with a minor in creative writing, and a job in the music industry. Writing has been an outlet for Dylan and a part of his life since he was young. His work is influenced by his experiences with mental illness, his identity as a transgender man, and his childhood in coastal New Hampshire. He also takes influence from his favorite horror movies, music, and of course his favorite authors, including Jonathan L. Howard and Stephen King. He hopes to publish a novel in the future and to continue using his short form work to provide a peek into his perspective on the lives of transgender Americans and those with chronic mental illness. He also plans to pursue further education in mathematics alongside his independent creative work.  

City Vomit (An Excerpt) The flat tops of buildings littered with exhaust fans, antennae, and other machinery pass by at lightning speed. One after the next. The signs intrigue me more than anything. Tamil’s Donut’s, with both apostrophes. 24 HR BEER/WINE/LOTTO*. The asterisk leads nowhere. A calling to look for something that doesn’t exist. Red Squi  el M tel. The dud lights of the sign for the Red Squirrel Motel say more than the ones that are on. 

I’m tugged from my daydream when the train takes a sharp turn, straining and groaning to keep itself upright, and the far lean of the car pulls on my wrists where I’m cuffed to a coat rack on the wall. There’s a nice window in front of me where I can look out on the miles of city vomit that we’re passing. City vomit. That’s what my little sister always called that stretch of shitty suburbs and run down neighborhoods that extends far longer than the picturesque downtown of a major city. I don’t know what city this is the vomit of, or what kind of train this is, or where it’s going. I do know who kidnapped me and why, but that’s not what I’m thinking about. I’m thinking about the Red Squirrel Motel and 24 HR LOTTO* and Tamil’s Donut’s.

The train rights itself as the tracks straighten. An Aspen Dental billboard smiles at me through the window, and I smile back. My captors must want me to know where we are. At least, it doesn’t matter that I can tell what city we’re in from the signs and billboards competing for a spot in my memory. They blindfolded me when they took me. They kept the blindfold—more comfortable than you might expect—on me from when I was taken at the port where I had just gotten off of a modestly sized private cargo ship all through driving me around in circles for hours in a less-than-successful attempt to disorient me. I can’t figure out if they’re stupid enough to take the blindfold off after hours of trying to get me good and lost, just for me to figure out from a Freedom Fertility billboard and a few highway signs precisely where we are, or if they only put it on in the first place for protocol reasons. The particular organization that nabbed me isn’t known for its efficiency.  

2022 Winner : Lily Renga

English Honor Society

The English Honor Society is composed of senior English majors with high GPAs both overall and in English courses. Members are selected in the spring of their senior year. (They do not have to apply.)

2023 English Honor Society

Kelly Barker

Molly Carriero

Jacqueline Carroll

Cynthia Choo

Lindsay Cook

Elizabeth Corney

Jenna DeLeo

Fiona Gavin

Caroline Harding

Donovan Hill

Rebecca Jacobson

Keenlyn Kilgore

Lauren Kourey

Grace Kully

Jessica Laino

Madeline Lay

Ava Lundell

Trinity Murphy

Elizabeth Nacion

Erin Neilsen

Adrianna Ogando

Julianna Perri

Graciela Petrelli

Rachel Reardon

Katherine Reed

Elena Rouse

Sarina Sandwell

Clare Sceski

Cecile Schuller

Catherine Wood

Karina Zakarian

The Core Honor Roll

The Villanova English Department’s Core English Honor Roll recognizes students whom instructors have identified as exceptional students in their Core English courses. This honor is for the one or two students in each Core English course who demonstrated the most aptitude in scholarly writing about literature.  

For the spring  semester of 2023, the following students made the Core Honor Roll:

Annie Arner

Chloe Berry

Hannah Borelli

Brandon Caprioni

Patrick Carney

Tara Chomienne

Angelica Ciofalo

Hunter Colon

Jennie Dapice

Alyssa Davis

Devin DePass

Colin R. Elliott

Anna Esteverena

Delaney Facques

Ryane Farrell

Camille Ferace

Elisabeth Ford

Kathryn Genthner

Catherine Gunther

Basia Holowenczak

Gina Imperiale

Katie Jandrasits

Margaret Kenny

Maddix Landahl

Moneya Leatherbury

Anthony McCarthy

Pierce Munsey

Tilak Patel

Mark Pergola

Olivia Picca

Lucy Plenge

Jason Reyes

Audrey Ryan

Anna Schafhauser

Ella Therriault

Lila Grace Trollip

Liam P. Woods

Carter Young

The Core Literature and Writing Seminar Award

The Core Literature and Writing Seminar Essay Award has been given to the best papers written for English 1975.

2023 Winner - Madison Rhodes

Maddie is a Sophomore English major with both a Biology and Peace & Justice minor. She often searches for the purpose of our existence through literature and how we exist through Biology. Maddie was born and raised in Manhattan NY, and moved to Delray Beach, Fl at age 11. Since then, she has explored her passions for writing poetry, science, enacting social change, and music. Now at Villanova, Maddie is a writer and staff member for the Ellipsis Literary Magazine looking to evoke emotion and feeling through her works. In her spare time, she serves as a Ruibal Leader at St. Laurence providing tutoring to children in lower-resourced communities. She also volunteers as a NOVAdance Engagement Coordinator in spreading awareness of pediatric cancer and fundraising for cancer families. Outside of Villanova, she has developed her own literary website mer.wordsunspoken.com to uncover words she finds unspoken throughout different seasons of life. Maddie is excited to compose more literary works in the future!

Spring 2020 - Walter McDonald Spring 2019 - Jordan McMeans Spring 2016 - Katie Vaughn Fall 2016 - Bella Burda Fall 2015 - Frank Fazio and Ciara Earrey Spring 2014 - Nicole Conway Fall 2014 - Sean Campbell and Kevin Madden     Spring 2013 - Roderic Hutton Fall 2013 - Patrick Ciapciak Fall 2012 - Paige Kennedy and Danielle Sekerak

The Literary Experience Award

The Literary Experience Essay Award has been given to the best papers written for English 1050.

Spring 2012 - Nicholas Cho Fall 2012 - Alissa Foti Spring 2011 - [not awarded] Fall 2011 - Monica Solis Spring 2010 - Anne Stohlquist Fall 2010 - Lien Trieu Spring 2009 - Michael Tomae, Nakoya Wilson Fall 2009 - Ellie Garbade Spring 2008 - Kailee Fowler Fall 2008 - Greg Cappa Spring 2007 - Marissa Zator Fall 2007 - C J Hodukavich Spring 2006 - Christina Park Fall 2006 - Jennifer Latz Spring 2005 - Christian Skonier Fall 2005 - Stephanie Cody Spring 2004 - Emily Trovato and Kerri White Fall 2004 - John Zurbach Spring 2003 - Monica Borgone Fall 2003 - Nadia Nauss Spring 2002 - Elizabeth Micklow Fall 2002 - Adrienne Sanetrik   Spring 2001 - Matt Varga Fall 2001 - Matt Nespoli Spring 2000 - Andrea Flood Fall 2000 - Michael Knerr and Ryan Zitnay   Spring 1999 - Jocelyn Trufant Fall 1999 - Kate Schramm Fall 1998 - Megan Knecht

Student Meriel Alexander holds up a "I love Villanova English" sign.

Villanova University Department of English St. Augustine Center Room 402

Department Chair Professor Heather Hicks

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WNDB promotes and donates diverse children's books for parents, educators, and librarians to transform their home, school, and community libraries.

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  • PRH Creative Writing Awards

The mission of the Penguin Random House Creative Writing Awards (CWAs), in partnership with WNDB, is to distribute scholarship awards encouraging the next generation of diverse and unique voices.

About the CWAs

For nearly 30 years, the Penguin Random House Creative Writing Awards have recognized the diverse talent of graduating high school seniors. In 2019, Penguin Random House entered into an innovative partnership with We Need Diverse Books to expand the program nationally. 

Through this program, PRH awards college scholarships of up to $10,000 each to five U.S. high school seniors nationwide. Five students receive $10,000 each in these categories: fiction / drama, the Michelle Obama Award for Memoir, the Amanda Gorman Award for Poetry, and the Maya Angelou Award for Spoken Word. There is also a  New York City entrant award, in recognition of the Creative Writing Awards previously being focused on the greater New York region. In addition to scholarship awardees, fifty honorable mentions receive “creativity kits,” which include a selection of Penguin Random House titles and writing resources. 

The contest is open to all high school seniors attending a public high school in the United States and its territories, who are planning to attend college in the fall. Every submission is given individual consideration through a multi-level selection process. Judges from We Need Diverse Books include school librarians, authors, teachers, and poets. Penguin Random House selects its own in-house judges each year. 

The CWAs aim to reach students across the United States. In 2021, 1000 students from nearly 700 high schools representing 50 states and territories of the U.S. submitted their work to the competition. 

Past winners have been invited to attend a professional-development day at Penguin Random House. The program gives students the opportunity to meet publishing executives and Creative Writing Awards Alumnx, gain insights into publishing, and to receive one-on-one mentoring with editors.  The CWAs have distinguished alumni who have gone on to become publishing professionals and award-winning authors. 

For more information, please visit https://social-impact.penguinrandomhouse.com/our-awards/u-s-creative-writing-awards/ .

How to Apply

The 2024 applications are closed.  

Check back in the June 2024 to see a list of winners for the Penguin Random House Creative Writing Awards.

Past Winners

2023 winners: .

  • Madison Corzine for "What I Wish I Knew: A Suburban Black Girl's Guide" (Michelle Obama Award for Memoir) Timber Creek High School, Fort Worth, TX
  • Isabella Rayner for "Cafecito para dos, sin leche" (Amanda Gorman Award for Poetry) Marvin Ridge High School, Waxhaw, NC
  • Melissa Vera  for "America" (Maya Angelou Award for Spoken Word) Edgewood High School, West Covina, CA
  • Karen Yang  for "Chicken Feet" (fiction / drama) West Windsor Plainsboro High School South, Princeton Jct., NJ
  • Gloria Blumenkrantz  for " Global History 2: 10/26/2020" (NYC Entrant) Frank McCourt High School, New York, NY

2022 Winners: 

  • Sagar Gupta for conversation starter: how is your english so good?  (Amanda Gorman Award for Poetry) Thomas Jefferson HS for Science and Technology, Herndon, VA
  • Ife Martin  for A Letter To Dr. King  (Maya Angelou Award for the Spoken Word), West Bloomfield High School, West Bloomfield, MI
  • Kayla T. Xu for Chasing Memories (Fiction / Drama), Scripps Ranch High School, San Diego, CA
  • Eva G. Martinez for Proud (Personal Essay), Valley Stream North High School, Franklin Square, NY
  • Arianna Steadma n for Food for Thought (NYC Entrant), Hunter College High School, New York, NY

2021 Winners: 

  • Ally Guo for “Superstition” (Fiction & Drama), William Mason High School, Mason, OH
  • Ajok Thon for “(Un)erasable Shade” (Personal Essay/Memoir), High Tech High Media Arts, San Diego, CA
  • Evelyn Lee for “My Mother Rejected God When She Was 19 But I Don’t Think God Ever Really Got Over It” (Poetry), Sam Houston High School, Moss Bluff, LA
  • Chloe Cramutola for “Why” (Maya Angelou Award for Spoken Word), Absegami High School, Stamford, NJ
  • Tandika Somwaru for “How to Write the Great Guyanese Novel” (NYC Entrant), of Midwood High School, Brooklyn, NY

2020 Winners: 

  • Erika Whisnant for Loophole Abuse (Fiction & Drama), Burke Middle College, Morganton, NC
  • Ivana Cortez for Planet: Elkhart, Indiana (Personal Essay), Galena Park High School, Galena Park, TX
  • Jeffrey Liao for Museum of My Own History, Age Sixteen (Poetry), Livingston High School, Livingston, NJ
  • Orlane Devesin for Evolution of the Black Woman (Maya Angelou Award for Spoken Word), Hiram High School, Hiram, GA
  • Maya Williams for To My Catcaller (NYC Entrant Award), Edward R. Murrow High School, Brooklyn, NY

Watch the 2020 winners share their work here . Read the 2020 winning submissions here .

2019 Winners: 

  • Kiora Brooks for The Misinterpretation of Dark Skin (Maya Angelou Award for Spoken Word), Topeka West High School, Topeka, KS
  • Nora Carrier for Stories My Mother Tells Me (New York City Entrant Award), Edward R. Murrow High School, Brooklyn, NY
  • Siobhan Cohen for American Jew (Personal Essay), Hunter College High School, New York, NY
  • Samantha Kirschman for blood moon (Fiction & Drama), Kenston High School, Chagrin Falls, OH
  • Katherine Sanchez for Red-White-and-Brown Skin (Poetry), Stuyvesant High School, New York, NY

See the 2019 winners share their work here . Read the 2019 winning submissions here .

Creative Writing Awards FAQ

WNDB and Penguin Random House will announce the date that submissions for the CWAs will open in the fall of each year. Once submissions for the Creative Writing Awards are open, go here to submit your application via the Scholarship America portal.

Applicants to the Creative Writing Awards must:

  • Be current high school seniors at a public high school in one of the United States of America, including the District of Columbia and U.S. territories, age 21 years and under, graduating in spring 2020
  • Planning to enroll in full-time undergraduate study at an accredited two-year or four-year college, university, or vocational-technical school for the entire upcoming academic year starting in fall 2020
  • Submit one original literary composition in English in one of the following genres of poetry, spoken word poem, fiction/drama or personal essay/memoir

Only the first 1000 applications will be accepted. Family members, employees of Bertelsmann, We Need Diverse Books, Penguin Random House, its subsidiaries, divisions or affiliates are ineligible to apply.

Submissions must meet the following guidelines:

  • All submissions must be typed, double-spaced with a minimum 12 point font size, and no longer than 10 pages.
  • All literary submissions with multiple pages must be numbered with a page number and total number of pages (Ex. 1/3, 2/3, 3/3).
  • A four-page minimum is recommended in the fiction/drama genre.
  • All uploaded entries must be clear and legible.
  • You may submit only one entry to the competition.
  • All entries must be original works. We do not accept plagiarism or copyright infringement.

Literary compositions are judged by their technical merit; however, artistic expression is our core criterion. We are looking for writing with a strong, clear voice by authors who are daring, original and unafraid to take risks.

All judging will be under the supervision of We Need Diverse Books and Penguin Random House by a specially selected panel of judges. The decision of the judges will be final. In the event there is an insufficient number of entries in any category which meet the minimum standards established by the judges, Penguin Random House reserves the right not to award any prize. 

Winners agree to the use by Penguin Random House or any of its subsidiaries or divisions of their names, addresses, likenesses, photographs and entries for promotional and similar purposes without further compensation or notification. Winners are solely responsible for any applicable state, federal or other taxes. Penguin Random House and Scholarship America cannot be held responsible for lost, late or misdirected mail or e-mail communications. No entries will be returned.

Awards will be distributed as follows:

  • $10,000 Maya Angelou Award for Spoken-Word Poetry
  • $10,000 Poetry
  • $10,000 Fiction/Drama
  • $10,000 Personal Essay/Memoir

Fifty Honorable Mention recipients will receive a “Creativity Kit” gift from Penguin Random House.

In recognition of the Creative Writing Awards previously being centered on New York City and as an extension of our longtime work with local schools there, we will also offer an additional first-place prize of $10,000 to the top entrant from the NYC area.

Scholarship awards will be made by Penguin Random House to your choice of post-secondary educational institution. Awards will be payable over four years.

Winners will be posted to the Penguin Random House website in June of each year. You can also follow WNDB social media, the winners will be posted there as well. Winners will be contacted directly.

Writing Resources

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Writing Resources for the Penguin Random House Creative Writing Awards

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Spilling the Tea: Author Suma Subramaniam on Maximizing Your Time

Spilling the tea: author meredith ireland on querying.

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Q&A With Alechia Dow, The Kindred

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You Do Not Have to Explain Your Magic

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Congratulations to the 2021 Creative Writing Awards Winners!

Confidence and Caring: Creative Writing Awards Alumnx Share Their Tips

Confidence and Caring: Creative Writing Awards Alumnx Share Their Tips

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Writing Advice from WNDB Anthology Contributors

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Rewriting as Discovery

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How to Write Consistent Characters and Build Realistic Worlds

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Department of Creative Writing

Contests & awards, larb/ucr lifetime achievement award.

The Department of Creative Writing and Los Angeles Review of Books present an annual lifetime achievement award. This coming year, for the first time, there will be multiple winners—three Poet Laureates of the United States.

2021: Rita Dove, Joy Harjo, and Juan Felipe Herrera

2020: Walter Mosley

2019: Margaret Atwood

2018: Maxine Hong Kingston

2017: Ngugi was Thiong'o

2016: John Rechy

Student Prizes

The Department of Creative Writing offers multiple writing opportunities for its students. Below are the various contest and awards available for Creative Writing undergraduates.

The Chancellor’s Performance Award – Up to $12,000 

The Chancellor’s Performance Award is a scholarship available to first-year students who major in Creative Writing.  Deadline: late April.  By internal nomination only.

The Ina Coolbrith Memorial Poetry Contest: Up to $100.00

A system-wide contest established by friends of the late Ina Coolbrith, former Poet Laureate of California, for the best unpublished poem or poems composed and submitted for this contest by an undergraduate student.  Deadline: early November.   Details . 

The William Henry Willis Memorial Poetry Prize: Up to $1200.00 

The William Henry Willis Memorial Poetry Prize is an annual cash poetry prize created by John Willis (’66 BA, ’68 MA, ’71 PhD, Physics) in honor of his father. William Henry Willis emigrated to the United States from Canada in 1949 and worked in a local factory for most of his career. During breaks while working the graveyard shift at the factory, he would find time to write poetry that captured and enhanced the events of his family life. Poetry was a creative outlet for Mr. Willis, and this prize was created to honor his love of poetry by encouraging this mode of creativity in future generations. Preference is given to a poem which touches upon family stories or immigrant communities, with humor and/or irony, and written by an undergraduate major or non-major at the University of California, Riverside”    Details .

The Abraham L. Polonsky Award: Up to $500.00 

This award was established by and is named after Abraham L. Polonsky, the noted author and screenwriter, whose scripts included  Body and Soul ,  Force of Evil ,  Mommy Dearest , and  Monsignor .  His novels included  The Enemy Sea ,  A Season of Fear , and  Zenia's Way .  In 1951, after he refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee, Mr. Polonsky was blacklisted in Hollywood.  Mr. Polonsky’s work often exposed the irony of class and social inequities in modern American life and the eroding effects of indifference to corruption.  The award is given to an outstanding short story published in the magazine  Mosaic .    Details . 

The Maurya Simon Poetry Award: Up to $250.00

This award, named after Professor Maurya Simon, is designated for an undergraduate student demonstrating unusual skill and great promise in poetry. He or she should be a Creative Writing major.

The Professor Eliud Martínez Endowed Scholarship Fund in Creative Writing: Up to $1500.00

Toto Funds the Arts

Creative Writing in English

Introduced in 2006, the awards in this category have been won by poets, short story writers and playwrights. The volume of entries has grown exponentially over the years and has explored a diversity of styles and themes – from performance poetry to science fiction. The composition of the jury for these awards includes poets, literary critics, novelists, journalists, scholars and teachers from different parts of the country.

2024 Longlist – Creative Writing (English)

TFA is pleased to announce the longlist for the nineteenth edition of the TOTO Awards for Creative Writing in English. From a total of 194 applications that we received, 26 young writers have been longlisted for the two awards. Their names, in no particular order, are:

Faiz Ahmad, Mumbai

Aditya Gautam, Bengaluru

Yamini Krishnan, New Delhi

Abhishek Basak, Delhi

Varsha Ananth Murthy, Bengaluru

Azhar Wani, Srinagar

Zainab Ummer Farook, Kozhikode

Tuhin Bhowal, Bengaluru

Sumedha Chakravarthy, New Delhi

Ajay Kumar, Hyderabad

Vismaya Vishwa, Bengaluru

Tanya Singh, Chandigarh

Shinjini Dey, Secunderabad

Michael Verghese, Bengaluru

Lonav Ojha, Tezpur

Rose Maria Alexis, Bengaluru

Tanvi Kulkarni, Pune

Kanika Ahuja, New Delhi

Kinshuk Gupta, Kaithal

Navya Sah, Bengaluru

Prerna Kalbag, Delhi

Afreen Khan, Delhi

Nupur Saraswat, Bengaluru

Subhrojyoti Mukherjee, Kolkata

Ishani Pant, Kolkata

Denzel Joyson AJ, Bengaluru

These awards are supported by Mani Rao Foundation and Naboneeta Majumdar.

Past Winners

Moachiba Jamir, Aparna Chivukula (2023)

Aswin Vijayan, Uday Kanungo (2022)

Kunjana Parashar, Amulya B (2021)

Riddhi Dastidar, Noor Niamat Singh (2020)

Swati Simha, Shreya Ila Anasuya (2019)

Maya Palit, Urvashi Bahuguna (2018)

Arvind Jayan, Sohini Basak (2017)

Tushar Jain, Danish Shaikh (2016)

Mohit Parikh, Kaushik Viswanath (2015)

Rohan Chhetri, Mihir Vatsa (2014)

Swetanshu Bora, Aditi Rao (2013)

Ramneek Singh, Joshua Muyiwa (2012)

Deepika Arwind, Ishita Basu Mallik (2011)

Abhishek Majumdar, Ram Ganesh Kamatham (2010)

Aditi Machado, Neel Chaudhuri (2009)

Anindita Sengupta, Arka Mukhopadhyay (2008)

Monica Mody, Sneha Rajaram (2007)

Nisha Susan, Shakti Bhatt, SS Prasad (2006 )

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Department of English

Contests & Awards in Creative Writing

The Creative Writing Program annually sponsors three contests across multiple genres. These contests are judged by a rotating group of writers who have received national recognition for their work and are not affiliated with the program:

  • The Blink Creative Writing Award . For a single short story. $2,500.
  • The David R. Russell Memorial Poetry Prize . First Place: $1,000; Second Place: $500; Third Place: $250.
  • The Frances Mossiker Prize . For any creative genre other than poetry or the short story, including hybrids. First Place: $1,000; Second Place: $500; Third Place: $250.

How to submit : For a full list of 2023 guidelines and submission information, see this year’s flyer . Contests are open to all regularly enrolled undergraduate students at SMU.

The Creative Writing Program also gives several awards for outstanding performance in creative writing coursework. Recipients of these awards are selected by faculty with no application required:

  • The Lon Tinkle Award for Excellence in Creative Writing . $1,200.
  • The Margaret Terry Crooks Award for Excellence in Creative Writing . $1,200
  • The Marsh Terry Creative Writing Scholarship . Award amount varies.

Annual Creative Writing Contests

Every year the Program in Creative Writing awards up to $15,000 to undergraduates and graduate students at various stages in their studies. The following prizes are awarded at the end of the spring semester at a special ceremony and reading. Please read the criteria carefully; most students are eligible to apply for more than one prize. To submit your poems, stories, or essays, please prepare pdfs of your writing samples as specified below, and upload them through the Qualtrics survey links listed below.

All prize applications are  due by March 21 , except for the ENGL 695 thesis prizes, which are due by April 20.

Click here for Winners of the 2022 UW-Madison Creative Writing Prizes .

awards in creative writing

Alum Chloe Benjamin, Photo © Oliver Bendorf

Email Contests Coordinator Sean Bishop

awards in creative writing

Awards for Students of ENGL 207: “Intro to Fiction & Poetry”

The Charles M. Hart, Jr. Writers of Promise Awards are given for the best poetry and fiction by students enrolled in ENGL 207: Intro to Fiction & Poetry. Students taking English 207 in either semester of the academic year may submit one story or three poems. Although there is no minimum or maximum word criteria for stories, we suggest you keep fiction submissions between five and thirty double-spaced pages in length. To apply, prepare a single PDF file beginning with a cover page that lists your name, preferred email address, and UW Campus ID#, followed by either one short story or three poems. The file name you use should employ the format “Lastname-Firstname_HartGenre2023,” where you replace “Genre” with either “Fiction” or “Poetry,” depending on the genre of the manuscript. For example if your name were Lorrie Moore and you were submitting fiction, you would label the file “Moore-Lorrie_HartFiction2023.pdf,” whereas if your name were Felix Pollak and you were submitting poetry, you would label the file “Pollak-Felix_HartPoetry2023.pdf.” The final deadline for this competition is March 21. Once you have prepared your submission, you may submit it here:  [CLICK TO SUBMIT]

Poetry Awards, Open to All UW-Madison Undergraduates

The Program in Creative Writing accepts entries to the Phillip H. Wang Memorial Prizes in Poetry ($500-$1,000) and the George B. Hill Poetry Awards ($100-$500) as a single submission. Read more about each award, below. All entries will be considered for both prizes. To apply for these awards, prepare a single PDF file beginning with a cover page that lists your name, preferred email, and UW Campus ID#, followed by 3 poems. If you wish, you may also prepare a second audio file of yourself reading the poems. For this optional audio file, MP3 format is strongly preferred, though we will accept M4A, WAV, or AIFF formats if necessary. The file names for both the PDF and the optional audio file should use the format “Lastname-Firstname_Poetry2022.” For example if your name were Audre Lorde, you would label the files “Lorde-Audre_Poetry2023.pdf” and “Lorde-Audre_Poetry2023.mp3,” respectively. The final deadline for both of these competitions is March 21. Once you have prepared your submission, you may submit it here:  [CLICK TO SUBMIT]

The Phillip H. Wang Memorial Prize in Poetry  ($1,000 winner, $500 runner up) is awarded to the best collection of three poems written by any undergraduate student at UW-Madison, submitted in a campus-wide competition. Since Phillip was a spoken-word artist, special consideration may be given to students who submit audio files of their poems in addition to the required pdf submissions. Interested applicants can read and hear a sampling of Phillip’s poems, by clicking  this link .

The George B. Hill Poetry Awards  ($100-$500) were established in 1951 by Theodore Stempfel, president of Brach’s Candy Company, to honor Stempfel’s college friend George. In addition to being a writer for  The Daily Cardinal,  Mr. Hill was also a poet, so the George B. Hill Awards were established to honor his legacy.

Fiction Awards, Open to All UW-Madison Undergraduates

The Program in Creative Writing accepts entries to the Henry Douglas Mackaman Undergraduate Writer’s Award ($1,000) and the Therese Muller Memorial Fiction Awards ($100-$500) as a single submission. Read more about each award, below. To apply for these awards, prepare a single PDF file beginning with a cover page that lists your name, preferred email, and UW Campus ID#, followed by one short story. The file name for this PDF should use the format “Lastname-Firstname_Fiction2023.” For example if your name were James Baldwin, you would label your file “Baldwin-James_Fiction2023.pdf.” The final deadline for both of these competitions is March 21. Once you have prepared your submission, you may submit it here:  [CLICK TO SUBMIT]

The Henry Douglas Mackaman Undergraduate Writer’s Award  ($1,000) was established in 2015. The prize is awarded to the best short story written by a sophomore, junior, or senior, submitted in a campus-wide competition. Read more about Henry Douglas Mackaman at  henrymackaman.com .

The Therese Muller Memorial Fiction Awards  ($100-$500) were established in 1951 by UW alumna and favorite daughter of Sauk City, Therese Muller, who graduated from UW in 1912. They are given to short stories of particular promise, written by any UW-Madison undergraduate.

Nonfiction Awards (See Details for Eligibility)

The Program in Creative Writing awards promising writers of creative nonfiction through two separate competitions. The Therese Muller Memorial Nonfiction Awards ($100-$500) are open to any UW-Madison undergraduate student, for any genre of creative nonfiction. The Johanna Garfield Award in Nonfiction Creative Writing ($2,500) is given to the best creative personal essay written by any undergraduate student  or graduate student currently enrolled at UW-Madison. Read more about each award and find the submission links, below. If you are eligible for both prizes, please note that you must submit separately to each. The final deadline for both of these competitions is March 21.

The Johanna Garfield Award in Nonfiction Creative Writing ($2,500) was established in 2020, and is open to any current undergraduate or graduate student at UW-Madison who submits a work of creative nonfiction that could be described as a “personal essay,” meaning an essay based primarily on the author’s lived experience. Before clicking the upload link, please prepare a single PDF file beginning with a cover page that lists your name, preferred email, and UW Campus ID#, followed by one personal essay. The file name should use the format “Lastname-Firstname_PersonalEssay2023.” For example if your name were Joan Didion, you would label the file “Didion-Joan_PersonalEssay2023.pdf.” Once you have prepared your submission, you may submit it here:  [CLICK TO SUBMIT]

The Therese Muller Memorial Nonfiction Awards ($100-$500) are open to any current UW-Madison undergraduate student who submits an essay in any sub-genre of creative nonfiction (personal essay, memoir, lyric essay, travel writing, creative journalism, etc, etc.) Graduate students are not eligible for these awards. Before clicking the upload link, please prepare a single PDF file beginning with a cover page that lists your name, preferred email, and UW Campus ID#, followed by one work of creative nonfiction. The file name should use the format “Lastname-Firstname_Nonfiction2023.” For example if your name were Roxane Gay, you would label the file “Gay-Roxane_Nonfiction2023.pdf.” Once you have prepared your submission, you may submit it here:  [CLICK TO SUBMIT]

Thesis Prizes for ENGL 695 Students

The Program in Creative Writing awards at least three annual prizes of $1,000 or more, for students who have completed ENGL 695 during the current academic year: one for poetry, one for fiction, and one for any genre. Read more about the individual prizes, below. To apply, please prepare a single PDF file beginning with a cover page that lists your name, preferred email, and UW Campus ID#, followed by the most complete draft you have of your ENGL 695 thesis. The file name you use should employ the format “Lastname-Firstname_ThesisGenre2023,” where you replace “Genre” with “Fiction,” “Poetry,” or the like, depending on the genre of your thesis. For example if your name were Lorrie Moore and you were submitting fiction, you would label the file “Moore-Lorrie_ThesisFiction2023.pdf,” whereas if your name were Felix Pollak and you were submitting poetry, you would label the file “Pollak-Felix_ThesisPoetry2023.pdf.” Other genres you could use include “Nonfiction,” “Stageplay,” “Screenplay,” or “Mixed” for a multi-genre thesis. The final deadline for this competition is April 20. Once you have prepared your submission, you may submit it here:  [CLICK TO SUBMIT]

The Ron Wallace Poetry Thesis Prize  ($1,000) is awarded annually for the best poetry thesis completed during the current academic year by an English Major with an Emphasis in Creative Writing. The prize was established by Professor Emeritus Ronald Wallace, author of 12 books and founder of UW’s Program in Creative Writing, who retired in 2015.

The Eudora Welty Fiction Thesis Prize  ($1,000) is awarded annually for the best fiction thesis completed by an English Major with an Emphasis in Creative Writing. Eudora Welty graduated from UW-Madison in 1929, and over the course of her writing career she received a National Book Award, a Pulitzer Prize, a National Book Critics Circle Award, a Nobel Prize nomination, and many other honors.

The Cy Howard Memorial Scholarship in Creative Writing  ($1,000) is awarded annually to an English Major with an Emphasis in Creative Writing, for a thesis written in any genre of creative writing. This award was established by Mrs. Barbara Howard in honor of her husband Cy, who was a graduate of UW-Madison and a writer for film and television.

2022 Creative Writing Award Winners

April 21, 2022.

Quantá Holden | Duke English Digital Communication Specialist

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We are excited to announce the winners of the 2022 Creative Writing Contests and the Creative Writing Scholarship awardees. Each year the English Department administers writing contests to recognize fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry by English majors and non-major undergraduates. Congratulations to the following students! 

Anne Flexner Memorial Award for Fiction Sascha Seinfeld, '23

Family members and friends of former English student Anne Flexner (1945) established the Anne Flexner Memorial Award for Creative Writing to recognize undergraduates for their work in fiction and poetry. 

Reynolds Price Award for Fiction Thalia Halloran, '22 Download Thalia Halloran’s “What I Done To You"  (docx - 25.31 KB) The Reynolds Price Fiction Award was established in memory of the distinguished novelist, essayist, poet, and public intellectual Reynolds Price, a graduate of Duke and professor in the English Department for over 50 years. 

CREATIVE NONFICTION

George P. Lucaci Award for Creative NonFiction Haoning Jiang, ’23  (1st place)   Download Haoning Jiang’s “Snowmen"  (docx - 27.36 KB) Francisco Angel Banda, ’23  (2nd place) Download Franciso Angel Banda’s “Travelling"  (docx - 25.17 MB) This award was created to encourage creative nonfiction writing and to honor George P. Lucaci, a former Duke student who has been an active supporter of undergraduate creative writing in the English Department for many years. 

Academy of American Poets Prize Marina Chen, ’24 (1st Prize) Download Marina Chen’s “Dreams About Blood"  (docx - 20.92 KB)

Spencer Chang, ’25  (Honorable Mention) Download Spencer Chang’s “Ghost Stories"  (docx - 20.53 KB) Founded in 1934 in New York City, the Academy of American Poets is the largest membership-based nonprofit organization advocating for American poets and poetry.  Its mission is to support American poets at all stages of their careers and foster contemporary poetry appreciation. 

Anne Flexner Memorial Award  for Poetry:  (co-winners) Margot Armbruster, ‘22 Download Margot Armbruster’s “clean suite"  (docx - 24.77 KB) Tina Xia, ‘23 Download Tina Xia’s “Waiting for the rain to fall"  (docx - 18.96 KB) Family members and friends of former English student Anne Flexner (1945) established the Anne Flexner Memorial Award for Creative Writing to recognize undergraduates for their work in fiction and poetry. 

Terry Welby Tyler, Jr Award for Poetry (co-winners) Lauren Garbett, '23  Download Lauren Garbett’s “From the Other"  (docx - 16.27 KB)

Rebecca Schneid, ‘23 Download Rebecca Schneid’s “Meditations on February"  (docx - 15.24 KB) The family of Terry Welby Tyler, Jr. established this award in his memory to recognize and encourage outstanding undergraduate poets. Welby, an English major who loved poetry, would have graduated with the class of 1997 had he not passed away in 1996.  

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awards in creative writing

Craft or Commodity? The ‘Paradox’ of High School Creative Writing Competitions

By propelling winners to elite colleges and empowering them to pursue writing, these competitions can change the course of students’ lives. But the pressure to win can also stunt young writers’ growth and complicate their relationship with their craft and themselves.

One story of his — which went on to win a national award for flash fiction — begins as a dispassionate description of household events, but turns by the end into a heart-wrenching account of a child dealing with the aftermath of his parents’ divorce. In writing it, Heiser-Cerrato says he was inspired by the struggles of friends who had experienced divorce.

He also wrote it to enter into national creative writing competitions.

In other disciplines, high schoolers compete in elite programs that can serve as pipelines to top colleges. Students interested in STEM fields often strive to qualify for the International Science and Engineering Fair, while those hoping to go into law and politics can apply for the U.S. Senate Youth Program or compete in the national championships for speech and debate.

For students like Heiser-Cerrato, a number of creative writing contests now serve as a similar path to elite college admissions.

Heiser-Cerrato, who won multiple national awards for his prose and poetry, submitted creative writing portfolios to Harvard, Princeton, and the University of Pennsylvania, and he’s sure his creative writing is what propelled him to Harvard.

“It was my main hook,” he says.

Competitions like YoungArts and the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards have skyrocketed in selectivity and prestige over the past few decades, becoming a quantifiable way for colleges to identify rising literary stars. The winners of top competitions disproportionately go on to attend elite universities.

However, selecting the nation’s top storytellers is more complicated than selecting its top scientists. Competitions can’t score poems in the same objective way they score students in a Math Olympiad. Instead, who wins these competitions often comes down to taste. Several former high school creative writers say that specific styles and topic areas disproportionately win national writing competitions. Top competitions, they say, incentivize writers to dredge up traumatic experiences or commodify their cultural backgrounds.

By propelling winners to elite colleges and empowering them to pursue writing, these competitions can change the course of students’ lives. But the pressure to win can also stunt young writers’ growth and complicate their relationship with their craft and themselves.

Creative writing contests aim to promote self expression and foster a new generation of artists. But does turning creative writing into a competition for admissions erode its artistic purpose?

‘The Most Important Experiences of My Life’

H eiser-Cerrato went to a “sports high school” where it was difficult for him to receive the mentorship he needed to improve his writing or find a creative community. With so few fellow writers at his high school, he had no way to judge his talent beyond the confines of his English classes.

Creative writing competitions were founded for students like Heiser-Cerrato. Even a century ago, Maurice Robinson — the founder of Scholastic — was surprised at the gap that existed in recognizing students interested in the arts. In 1923, he hosted the first national Scholastic Art and Writing Competition.

By the 2000s, Scholastic no longer had a monopoly on creative writing competitions. YoungArts was founded in 1981, and the Foyle Young Poets Competition held its inaugural competition in 1998. After the Adroit Journal and Bennington College launched their annual creative writing competitions in the 2010s, competing in multiple creative writing competitions became common practice for aspiring poets and novelists.

When students started finding out about competitions through the internet, competitions like Scholastic doubled in size. The Covid-19 pandemic drove submissions to competitions like Foyle Young Poets up even more. Last year, the Scholastic awards received more than 300,000 entries, up from the 200,000 some entries received in 2005.

Collectively, these contests now receive more than 315,000 creative writing entries a year in categories like poetry, prose, and even spoken word. Students submit individual works of writing, or in some cases portfolios, to be judged by selection panels often consisting of professors and past winners. They are assessed on criteria like “originality, technical skill, and personal voice or vision.”

The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards boasts an impressive list of alumni who have gone on to win the highest literary prizes in their fields. Past winners include lauded writers Stephen King, Sylvia Plath, Joyce Carol Oates, and Amanda S. Gorman ’20.

Hoping to perhaps join this illustrious group, Heiser-Cerrato began applying to competitions his sophomore year. Spurred on by his high school English teacher — who incorporated contest submissions into assignments — Heiser-Cerrato felt the concrete nature of competition deadlines helped hold him accountable.

“When you’re trying to do something creative and you have no feedback loop or deadline, you can get very off track and not develop,” he says. “I never would have done that if there wasn’t a contest to submit to, because then there was no opportunity to get feedback.”

While Heiser-Cerrato went on to win some of Scholastic’s top honors — a National Silver Medal and Silver Medal with Distinction for his senior portfolio — even some who fare less well appreciate the feedback competitions provide.

“I think a lot of people are very cautious to give negative feedback to younger writers,” says Colby A. Meeks ’25, a former poetry editor of the Harvard Advocate. “I think getting rejections from certain contests and losing certain competitions did help me grow as a writer insofar as tempering an ego that I think young writers can very easily get from English teachers.”

Heiser-Cerrato views his experience with the Adroit Journal Summer Mentorship Program — a program that pairs high schoolers with established writers — as “pretty instrumental to my growth.” After applying during his senior year, Heiser-Cerrato met bi-weekly with his mentor, discussing works of other authors and workshopping two stories of his own.

Similarly, when Darius Atefat-Peckham ’23, then a student at the Interlochen Center for the Arts, won a National Silver Medal in the Scholastic competition, he became eligible to apply to the National Students Poet Program. From a pool of finalists submitting more than 23,000 works, Atefat-Peckham was selected as one of five National Student Poets.

“It led me to probably the most important experiences of my life. As a National Student Poet, I got to travel the Midwest and teach workshops to high schoolers and middle schoolers,” he says. “That pretty much set me on my trajectory for wanting to be a teacher someday, wanting to apply myself in the ways that I would need in order to get to a prestigious institution.”

‘If You’re Going to Apply to Harvard…’

W hen Daniel T. Liu ’27 opened his Harvard application portal, he knew exactly why he’d gotten in.

“My application to college was almost solely based on writing,” Liu says.

In high school, along with serving on the editorial staff of multiple literary magazines and attending creative writing summer camps, Liu won dozens of contests — including becoming a YoungArts winner and a 2022 Foyle Young Poet of the Year.

“I actually read my admissions file, and they did mention camps that they know, summer camps like Iowa and Kenyon, which are big teen writing summer programs,” says Liu. “They pointed that out.”

According to The Crimson’s analysis of publicly available data and interviews with multiple students, there is a clear link between high school creative writing contest success and enrollment at highly selective colleges.

From 2019 to 2022, among students with publicly available educational history who won Scholastic’s Gold Medal Portfolio — the competition’s highest award — just over 50 percent enrolled in Ivy League universities or Stanford. Fifteen percent more received writing scholarships or enrolled at creative writing focused colleges.

From 2015 to 2020, 55 percent of the students who won first, second, or third place in the Bennington Young Writers Awards for fiction or poetry enrolled in Ivy League universities or Stanford.

“My application to college was almost solely based on writing,” Daniel T. Liu says.

As Atefat-Peckham reflects back on his college application, he knows his creative writing successes were essential in complementing his standardized test scores. While he was proud of his ACT score, he did not believe it would have been enough to distinguish him from other qualified applicants.

Since 2018, three recipients of YoungArts’ top-paying scholarship — the $50,000 Lin Arison Excellence in Writing Award — have matriculated to Harvard. Other winners attended Brown, Swarthmore, and Wesleyan. Recent recipients include Stella Lei ’26, Rhodes Scholar-Elect Isabella B. Cho ’24, and Liu.

Creative writing competitions’ prominence in the college admissions process comes during the most competitive college application environment ever. Harvard’s Class of 2025 received a record-high number 57,435 applicants, leading to the lowest admissions rate in College history.

Eleanor V. Wikstrom ’24, a YoungArts winner and Rhodes Scholar-elect, described YoungArts as “super cool” in allowing her to meet other artists. She also recognized the importance of her participation for college applications.

“I can’t lie: If you think that you’re going to apply to Harvard, it’s very helpful to have some kind of national accolade,” she says.

The ‘Paradox’ of Competitive Art

I n 2021, an anonymously written document accusing student poet Rona Wang of plagiarism made waves in the competitive creative writing community. Wang — who had won awards from MIT and the University of Chicago, was affiliated with Simon & Schuster, and had published a book of short stories — was accused of copying ten works written by other student poets.

According to Liu, this behavior isn’t unprecedented. Several years ago, Liu explains, an “infamous” scandal erupted in the high school creative writing world when a student plagiarized Isabella Cho’s poetry and entered it into competitions.

Liu says more students are beginning to apply to writing competitions out of a desire to have awards on their resume, rather than because of a genuine interest in creative writing.

While creative writing contests can provide valuable opportunities for feedback and mentorship, several students look back on their time in the competitive creative writing circuit with ambivalence. The pressure to write in service of a contest — writing to win, not just to create — can pressure writers to commodify their identities and cash in on their painful experiences, turning a creative outlet into a path to admissions or quest for outside validation.

Liu says he regrets that creative writing competitions are becoming a pipeline to elite college admissions. He’s worried competitions like Scholastic and YoungArts are becoming too similar to programs like the International Science and Engineering Fair.

“Math, science, all these competitions, they all have some aspect of prestige to them,” says Liu. “What makes it so difficult in that regard is that writing isn’t math. It requires a level of personal dedication to that craft.”

“It kind of sucks because a lot of artistic practice should come out of personal will,” says Liu. “To compete in art is paradoxical, right?”

Sara Saylor, who won a gold portfolio prize for her writing, told the New York Times in 2005 that “the awards came to mean too much to me after a while.”

“Whenever Scholastic admissions time rolled around, we began to get very competitive and more concerned about winning the contest than we should have,” she says.

Indeed, students at elite creative high schools like the Interlochen Center for the Arts are pushed by teachers to enter competitions. Hannah W. Duane ’25, who attended the Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts as part of the creative writing department, was required to submit to three creative writing competitions every six weeks.

(These competitions are dominated by schools like Duane’s. In 2019, 23 Interlochen students received national Scholastic awards for their creative writing — a distinction typically awarded to less than 1 percent of entries.)

Though Liu wasn’t required to submit to contests, he felt a different kind of obligation. Liu says writing competitions pushed him to write almost exclusively about his heritage, keeping him from exploring other narratives.

“From the start, I applied with a lot of cultural pieces, like pieces about my family history,” says Liu. “Those were the ones that won. And so it built me into a cycle where I was only writing about these areas — heritage.”

Liu’s experience wasn’t uncommon. When looking at other winning pieces, he noticed a similar trend.

“The competitions — Scholastic, YoungArts, those two big ones — definitely prioritize writing about your heritage,” says Liu. “Part of the reason behind that is for a lot of the students, that’s a very unique aspect of them.”

“In a hyper-competitive environment, what you can write better than anyone else is what’s gonna make you stand out,” he adds.

In an emailed statement, YoungArts Vice President Lauren Slone wrote that YoungArts winners in writing “must demonstrate a sense of inventiveness, show attention to the complexities and technical aspects of language, and have a clear, original, and distinct point of view.”

Chris Wisniewski ’01, Executive Director of the nonprofit that oversees Scholastic, wrote in an email that the competition has been “welcoming to works across many styles, subjects, and points of view” and does not give “implicit or explicit guidance” to jurors or competitors about the content or style of winning pieces. He added that “on the national level, each piece of writing undergoes at least three separate readings from jurors to diversify the views on its adherence to the program’s original and sole criteria.”

Ryan H. Doan-Nguyen ’25, who received a Scholastic Gold Key and won the New York Times’s Found Poem Contest, notes another way young writers try to distinguish themselves.

“Students feel compelled to embellish or to write about really painful things,” says Doan-Nguyen, a Crimson News Editor. “It does tend to be really heavy hitting topics that make the page.”

According to him and multiple others, the creative writing circuit pushes students to expose deeply personal, sometimes traumatic experiences for academic points. (Students make similar claims about the college admissions process .)

Doan-Nguyen was hesitant to publicly open up about vulnerable experiences, so he shied away from writing about traumatic memories of his own. But he fears this reluctance held him back.

“Maybe that’s why I did not win more contests,” he says. “I was always too afraid to be so vulnerable and raw.”

Duane recalls the competitions being dominated by sobering personal narratives: often stories about authors’ experiences with racism, abuse, or sexual assault. However, her school worked to insulate its students from the pressure to sensationalize.

“The constant refrain we would hear is, ‘Writing is not your therapy. Get that elsewhere,’” she says.

Liu says writing contests not only changed his content — they also pushed him and other competitors to write in the specific style of past winners. He says many successful pieces were reminiscent of the poet and novelist Ocean Vuong.

Writers would cut their lines off at odd places “to give the illusion of mystery when there’s no real thought behind it besides, ‘Hey, it should look like this because it looks pretty like this,’” says Liu. He also recalls writers, especially young poets, using “a lot of language of violence.” Liu worries this overreliance on stylistic imitation can stunt young writers’ growth.

He questions whether the existence of creative writing competitions is helping young writers at all.

“If writing is supposed to be a practice of self-reflection, you’re not doing those things when you plagiarize. You’re not doing those things when you submit just a draft of someone else’s style,” says Liu. “It doesn’t align with what it should be as an artistic practice.”

‘I Will Always Be Writing’

S ince coming to Harvard, Heiser-Cerrato has begun writing for a very different purpose. He joined the Harvard Lampoon, a semi-secret Sorrento Square social organization that used to occasionally publish a so-called humor magazine.

With the structure and pressure of creative writing competitions behind them, he and other past winners are taking their writing in new directions.

“My high school writing was very sentimental and very focused on trying to be profound,” Heiser-Cerrato says. “But here, I’ve been more interested in the entertainment side of things.”

When writing for competitions, Heiser-Cerrato says it was difficult for him to define his goals. But for the Lampoon, he says he just wants to make others laugh. There, Heiser-Cerrato has finally found the sense of community he lacked in high school.

Meeks joined the Harvard Advocate, where he critiques poetry instead of writing it. In high school, Meeks appreciated competitions as an avenue through which to receive feedback on his writing. Now, he works to give those who submit work to the Advocate similar guidance.

“Often, submitting to a literary magazine feels like you’re sending something into a void,” Meeks says. “And I really wanted as much as possible, as much as it was manageable timewise, to make sure that people were getting some feedback.”

Like Meeks, Wikstrom and Doan-Nguyen are also members of campus publications. Wikstrom is the former editorial chair of The Crimson, and Doan-Nguyen is a Crimson News and Magazine Editor.

Wikstrom, who was the Vice Youth Poet Laureate of Oakland in high school for her spoken word poetry, says she loved spoken word poetry in high school because of its capacity to spark action. At Harvard, she saw The Crimson’s Editorial Board as another way to speak out about important issues.

“It’s a really interesting middle ground for creative writing, because you do have the commitment to factual accuracy,” she says. “But you also have more leeway than perhaps news to be injecting your personal voice. And also that urgency of, ‘I feel very strongly about this. And other people should feel strongly about this, too.’”

Unlike Heiser-Cerrato, Atefat-Peckham wasn’t drawn to any existing organization on campus. Though he attended Interlochen and succeeded in highly selective contests while in high school, Atefat-Peckham disagreed with the cutthroat, commodifying incentive structure and believed campus literary organizations like the Advocate and Lampoon were too selective.

When Atefat-Peckham returned to campus after the pandemic, he helped form the Harvard Creative Writing Collective, a non-competitive home for creative writing on campus.

Liu is a member of the Creative Writing Collective and the Advocate. But most of his writing at Harvard has been independent. Instead of writing for competitions, Liu says he’s transitioned to writing for himself.

And though Doan-Nguyen is not sure what he wants to do after college, he — along with Liu, Meeks, Heiser-Cerrato, Wikstrom, and Duane — is sure writing will play a role in it.

“It’s a big part of my life and always has been, and I think it’s made me see so much about the work that I wouldn’t have seen otherwise if I didn’t put my pen to paper,” says Doan-Nguyen.

“I know that no matter what I end up doing, whether that’s going to law school or journalism or just doing nonprofit work, I will always be writing. Writing and writing and writing.”

Correction: February 13, 2024

A previous version of this article included a misleading quote attributed to Ryan Doan-Nguyen.

— Magazine writer Cam N. Srivastava can be reached at [email protected] .

— Associate Magazine Editor Adelaide E. Parker can be reached at [email protected] .

Annual Creative Writing Contest Winners Announced

Every year the Program in Creative Writing awards up to $15,000 to undergraduates and graduate students at various stages in their studies. Here are the 2023 award winners!

Charles M. Hart Writers of Promise Awards Judged by Jackie Chalghin, Nitya Gupta, RE Hawley, Phoebe Kranefuss, Aeron Parks and Robert Bynum

1st place: Hannah DeGuzman 2nd place: Han Raschka 3rd place: Ella Olson

Honorable mentions: Emma Altschul, Tara Awate, and Diya Abbas

Philip H. Wang Memorial Prize in Poetry Judged by Chessy Normile

1st place: Azura Tyabji 2nd place: Diya Abbas

George B. Hill Poetry Prizes Judged by Chessy Normile

1st place: Madeline Mitchell 2nd place: Nuha Dolby

Honorable mentions: Maria Freese, Roshnie Rupnarian, and Claire Friedlander

Henry Douglas Mackaman Undergraduate Writer’s Award Judged by Yalitza Ferreras and Taymour Soomro

1st place: Bess Henshaw

Therese Muller Fiction Prizes Judged by Yalitza Ferreras and Taymour Soomro

1st place: Madeline Mitchell 2nd place: Jackson Wyatt

Honorable mentions: Natalie Bercutt, Sam Downey, McKayla Murphy, and Shailaja Singh

Therese Muller Non Fiction Prizes Judged by Yalitza Ferreras and Taymour Soomro

1st place: AJ Johnson 2nd place: Nuha Dolby 3rd place: Rhia Dinghra

Honorable mentions: Natalie Bercutt and McKayla Murphy

Ronald Wallace Poetry Thesis Prize Judged by Steven Espada Dawson

1st place: Zack Lesmeister

Eudora Welty Fiction Thesis Prize Judged by Amanda Rizkalla

1st place: Dana Brandt

Cy Howard Memorial Scholarship Thesis Prize Judged by Steven Espade Dawson and Amanda Rizkalla

1st place: Aiden Aragon

Richard Knowles Teaching Award

1st place: Jackie Chalghin

Jerome Stern Teaching Award

1st place: Megan Kim

Johanna Garfield Award in Non Fiction Judged by Alyssa Knickerbocker

1st place: Aeron Parks for “Arches”

August Derleth Graduate Creative Writing Prize Judged by Claire Luchette

1st place: Nitya Gupta “How to Break Up with Your Husband”

William W. Marr Graduate Prize in Creative Writing Judged by Clemonce Heard

1st place: Renee Lepreau for “On the Day You Were Born” and other poems

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Two prizes of $1,000 each and publication in Sixfold are given quarterly for a group of poems and a short story. Using only the online submission system, submit up to five poems totaling no more than 10 pages or up to 20 pages of prose with a $5 entry fee by April 23. Visit the website for complete guidelines. 

Sixfold , Poetry and Short Story Awards, 10 Concord Ridge Road, Newtown, CT 06470. (203) 491-0242. Garrett Doherty, Publisher.

2024-2025 competition is closed. 2025-2026 competition will open in April 2024. 

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Current U.S. Student

United States citizens who are currently enrolled in undergraduate or graduate degree programs are eligible to apply.If you are currently enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate program at a U.S. college or university, you will apply through that institution, even if you are not currently a resident there. Find the Fulbright Program Adviser on your campus.

U.S. Citizen but not a Student

If you are a U.S. citizen, will hold a bachelor’s degree by the award start date, and do not have a Ph.D. degree, then you are eligible to apply. Non-enrolled applicants should have relatively limited professional experience in the fields (typically 7 years or less) in which they are applying. Candidates with more experience should consider applying for the Fulbright Scholar Program .

The Getting Started page will provide information on eligibility and next steps.

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program welcomes applications in the creative and performing arts. Arts candidates for the U.S. Student Program should have relatively limited professional experience in the fields (typically 7 years or less) in which they are applying. Artists with more experience should consider applying for the Fulbright Scholar Program .

Creative & Performing Arts projects fall under the Study/Research grant category and are available in all countries where Study/Research grants are offered.

U.S. Professor/Administrator

If you are a U.S. citizen and a professor or administrator at a U.S. institution and are interested in applying for a Fulbright Scholar Award, you will need to apply through fulbrightscholars.org .

To support your students in applying for a U.S. Student Program award, please connect with the Fulbright Program Adviser at your institution.

Non U.S. Citizens

If you are a non-U.S. citizen interested in applying for a Fulbright Award to the United States, you will need to apply through the Fulbright Commission or U.S. Embassy in your home country. Find out more information on the Fulbright Visiting Scholar Program or Fulbright Foreign Student Program .

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United Kingdom

1 fulbright/manchester metropolitan university award in creative writing, specialized grant types, fulbright graduate degree grants, award profile.

The Fulbright Manchester Metropolitan University Postgraduate Award covers one year of a master’s degree in creative writing at the University.

The Manchester Wri ting School is based at  Manchester Metropolitan University , a University at the heart of a global city, with an international reputation for its creative courses.

Established in 1998, the Manchester Writing School is one of the largest and most successful writing schools in the UK. The School’s Creative Director is Carol Ann Duffy (UK Poet Laureate 2009-2019), and she teaches alongside a team of distinguished writers and critics including Tony Award-winning scriptwriter Simon Stephens and winner of the 2021 Costa Book of the Year Award Monique Roffey.

Our one-year MA and two-year MFA Creative Writing programmes will help students develop their writing skills through a blend of writing workshops and reading units, allowing candidates to explore the techniques and styles of modern and contemporary literature. Taught by practising writers, we offer units in Novel (including Short Fiction), Poetry, Writing for Children & Young Adults, Scriptwriting or Creative Non-Fiction.

Our school plays a leading role in establishing Manchester as a city of writers. Many of our students and graduates have embarked upon published careers, launching first books, with many more achieving publication in journals and magazines, winning writing awards and prizes, and setting up small presses and anthologies. Our alumni include Yale University Windham-Campbell Prize winner Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, Costa First Book Award winner Andrew Michael Hurley and Forward Poetry Prize winner Kei Miller.

Manchester Writing School is located in the centre of Manchester, a lively and diverse city with a unique arts, culture and music scene. Voted the UK’s best city to live in, Manchester is surrounded by green space, waterways and the rolling hills of the country’s first national park, The Peak District, which is a short train ride away. Manchester has been designated a UNESCO City of Literature and our School has a strong presence in the city, with links to many of the major cultural and arts organisations.

Grant Length

Grant period.

Master's programs in the UK may last up to one year (and in rare circumstances, 2 years). Unless otherwise stated, funding is provided for the first year of the degree - although the grant period is 10 months, tuition waivers cover the entire first year and student visas are not impacted by grant length. 

Stipend amounts are set and do not change based on length of the degree.

Orientation

Candidate profile.

  • Rigor in scholarly enquiry and academic or professional excellence;
  • Strong reasons for wishing to pursue the proposed project in the UK and at a particular institution;
  • A desire to gain a better understanding of the peoples and cultures of their host country;
  • Commitment to the community through volunteer and extra-curricular activities;
  • Flexibility and dynamism necessary for active involvement in the host country.

Eligibility

  • The following applicants are ineligible for consideration: applicants who have extensive previous experience in the UK, applicants whose proposals are to complete any part of a medical degree, including internships or residencies, or applicants who hold a Ph.D. at the time the grant is to begin.

Applicants who have previously spent time at their selected university will be at a competitive disadvantage.

Degree Level of Applicant

Special application instructions.

In your Fulbright online application, for  Award Name , please select the specific award you are applying for from the drop down menu

Foreign Language Proficiency

Fulbright proposal types, affiliation.

Applicants are responsible for arranging their own affiliation and must apply for admission according to the relevant university’s admissions procedures. Applicants are not expected to have a letter of admission/affiliation at time of application, but awards are made conditional upon acceptance by the chosen institution before arrival.

Applicants will complete two applications, the Fulbright application and the university’s application (according to the university’s admissions procedures). Applicants are strongly encouraged to submit their university applications as early as possible, ideally before January 15, 2024. Applicants who fail to do so may be at a competitive disadvantage. The Fulbright Program does not cover the application fee for the university.

Affiliation Fees/Tuition

Tuition for the first year of study will be waived internally by the host university. 

Fulbright Program Management Contact

Fulbright commission/u.s. embassy website, grant amount.

  • Full tuition waiver for the first year of study
  • £15,609 living stipend a (contribution towards general maintenance costs)
  • £1,500 travel stipend

The living stipend is intended as a contribution towards general maintenance costs towards the first year in the UK.

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A Long-Forgotten TV Script by Rachel Carson Is Now a Picture Book

In “Something About the Sky,” the National Book Award-winning marine biologist brings her signature sense of wonder to the science of clouds.

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A cut-paper and sumi ink illustration shows a young boy watching a small plane as it soars through the sky trailing cirrus clouds that look like jet stream. The silhouetted boy, the plane and the clouds are cut from black and white paper. The bright sky is rendered with blue ink that fades dark to light from top to bottom.

By Maria Popova

Maria Popova, the creator of TheMarginalian.org and the author of the forthcoming “The Universe in Verse: 15 Windows on Wonder Through Science and Poetry,” has written about Rachel Carson in her book “Figuring.”

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SOMETHING ABOUT THE SKY , by Rachel Carson. Illustrated by Nikki McClure.

A cloud is a spell against indifference, an emblem of the water cycle that makes this planet a living world capable of trees and tenderness, a great cosmic gasp at the improbability that such a world exists, that across the cold expanse of space-time, strewn with billions upon billions of other star systems, there is nothing like it as far as we yet know.

Clouds are almost as old as this world, born when primordial volcanoes first exhaled the chemistry of the molten planet into the sky, but their science is younger than the steam engine. At the dawn of the 19th century, the chemist and amateur meteorologist Luke Howard, still in his 20s, noticed that clouds form in particular shapes under particular conditions. Applying the principles of the newly popular Linnaean taxonomy of the living world to clouds, he named the three main classes cumulus , stratus and cirrus , then braided them into sub-taxonomies.

When a German translation reached Goethe, the polymathic poet with a passion for morphology was so inspired that he sent fan mail to the young man who “distinguished cloud from cloud,” then composed a suite of verses about the main classes. It was Goethe’s poetry, translating the lexicon of an obscure science into the language of wonder, that popularized the cloud names we use today.

A century and a half later, six years before Rachel Carson awakened the modern ecological conscience with her book “Silent Spring” and four years after “The Sea Around Us” earned her the National Book Award (whose judges described it as “a work of scientific accuracy presented with poetic imagination”), the television program “Omnibus” approached her to write “something about the sky,” in response to a request from a young viewer.

This became the title of the segment that aired on March 11, 1956 — a soulful serenade to the science of clouds, emanating from Carson’s credo that “the more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us the less taste we shall have for the destruction of our race.”

Although celebrated for her books about the sea, Carson had begun her literary career with an eye to the sky.

She was only 11 when her story “A Battle in the Clouds” — inspired by her brother’s time in the Army Air Service during World War I — was published in the popular young people’s magazine St. Nicholas, where the early writings of Edna St. Vincent Millay, F. Scott Fitzgerald and E.E. Cummings also appeared. She eventually enrolled at Pennsylvania Women’s College, intent on majoring in English.

And then, the way all great transformations slip in through the back door of the mansion of our plans, her life took a turn that shaped her future and the history of literature.

To meet the school’s science requirement, Carson took an introductory biology course. She found herself enchanted by the subject and changed her major.

But she never lost her love of literature. “I have always wanted to write,” Carson told her lab partner late one night. “Biology has given me something to write about.”

She was also writing poetry, submitting it to various magazines and receiving rejection slip after rejection slip. Somewhere along the way — training at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory, working for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, writing reports her boss deemed far too lyrical for a government publication and encouraged her to submit to The Atlantic Monthly — Carson realized that poetry lives in innumerable guises beyond verse.

In 1952, she would rise from the table she shared with the poet Marianne Moore to receive her National Book Award with these words: “The aim of science is to discover and illuminate truth. And that, I take it, is the aim of literature, whether biography or history or fiction. It seems to me, then, that there can be no separate literature of science.”

If there was poetry in her writing, Carson believed, it was not because she “deliberately put it there” but because no one could write truthfully about nature “and leave out the poetry.”

It was a radical idea — that truth and beauty are not in rivalry but in reciprocity, that to write about science with feeling is not to diminish its authority but to deepen it. Carson was modeling a new possibility for generations of writers to come, blurring the line between where science ends and poetry begins.

That was the ethos she took to her “Omnibus” assignment about “the writing of the wind on the sky,” detailing the science of each of the main cloud classes and celebrating them as “the cosmic symbols of a process without which life itself could not exist on earth.”

After coming upon fragments of Carson’s long-lost television script via Orion magazine, the artist Nikki McClure — who grew up immersed in nature, worked for a while at the Department of Ecology and finds daily delight in watching birds under the cedar canopy by her home — was moved to track down the complete original and bring it to life in lyrical illustrations.

Known for her singular cut-paper art, with its stark contrasts and sharp contours, she embraced the creative challenge of finding a whole new technique in order to channel the softness of the sky.

Using paper from a “long-ago” trip to Japan and sumi ink she freely applied with brushes, she let the gentle work of gravity and fluid dynamics pool and fade the mostly blue and black hues into textured layers — a process of “possibility and chance.”

Then, as she recounts in an illustrator’s note at the back of the book, she “cut images with the paper, not just from it”: “The paper and I had a conversation about what might happen.”

What emerges is a kind of tender visual poem, as boldly defiant of category as Carson’s writing.

Although Carson never wrote explicitly for children, she wrote in the language of children: wonder.

Less than a year after “Something About the Sky” aired on “Omnibus,” Carson took over the care of her orphaned grandnephew, Roger, whom she would soon legally adopt. (He’s the small boy romping across McClure’s illustrations.) In what began as an article for Woman’s Home Companion and was later expanded into her posthumously published book “The Sense of Wonder,” she wrote:

If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children, I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantments of later years, the sterile preoccupation with things that are artificial, the alienation from the sources of our strength.

SOMETHING ABOUT THE SKY | By Rachel Carson | Illustrated by Nikki McClure | Candlewick Studio | 56 pp. | $19.99 | Ages 5 to 8

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Even in countries where homophobia is pervasive and same-sex relationships are illegal, queer African writers are pushing boundaries , finding an audience and winning awards.

In Lucy Sante’s new memoir, “I Heard Her Call My Name,” the author reflects on her life and embarking on a gender transition  in her late 60s.

For people of all ages in Pasadena, Calif., Vroman’s Bookstore, founded in 1894, has been a mainstay in a world of rapid change. Now, its longtime owner says he’s ready to turn over the reins .

Do you want to be a better reader?   Here’s some helpful advice to show you how to get the most out of your literary endeavor .

Each week, top authors and critics join the Book Review’s podcast to talk about the latest news in the literary world. Listen here .

FanSided

Terry Matalas and Jeri Ryan pick up Hollwood Creative Alliance Awards

B oth Jeri Ryan and Terry Matalas picked up wins from the Hollywood Creative Alliance Awards , which celebrates diverse excellence in entertainment. Matalas won an award for Best Writing for a Streaming Series for Star Trek: Picard while Jeri Ryan won for Best Support Actress in a Streaming Drama Series , again, for Star Trek: Picard.

The final season of Star Trek: Picard remains one of the best season of Star Trek television (or streaming ,rather), and even almost a year later, the accolades are continuing. Matalas' skill at writing the reunion of Star Trek: The Next Generation characters and introducing a surprise son for Admiral Jean-Luc Picard set the stage for ten power-packed episodes that are still being enjoyed by fans today.

Jeri Ryan, who spent four seasons as the former Borg drone Seven of Nine on Star Trek: Voyager, returned to the character during the first season of Picard. Her character really stood out in this series, as she stepped into the spotlight. Matalas allowed her to go even further in the final season of Picard with her not only as a member of Starfleet but also second in command of the Titan.

Ryan poured herself into this character that Matalas had, in some ways, rewritten, and so when Seven of Nine was promoted to captain of the new Enterprise, fans were not only not surprised, they were elated. The next step, of course, is to allow this wonderful character to continue in a spin-off of Picard, Star Trek: Legacy . After Seven of Nine has come so far, it would be a shame to never see how much farther she can go.

Congratulations to both Terry Matalas and Jeri Ryan for picking up these prestigious awards! We're looking forward to seeing what both of these talents bring to the future of Star Trek!

Terry Matalas and Jeri Ryan pick up Hollwood Creative Alliance Awards

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Courtney martin, director of ycba, will lead rauschenberg foundation.

Courtney Martin

Courtney Martin

Courtney J. Martin ’09 Ph.D., the Paul Mellon Director of the Yale Center for British Art (YCBA), has accepted a new appointment as executive director of the New York-based Robert Rauschenberg Foundation.

Martin, a scholar of historical and contemporary art who has led YCBA since 2019, will continue in her Yale role until June 30, 2024.

“ A strategic, visionary leader, she has strengthened the YCBA over the past five years and set it on a trajectory for even greater accomplishments,” Yale President Peter Salovey wrote in a message to the community on Feb. 8.

While Martin joined the YCBA in 2019, her relationship with Yale goes back much farther. She earned her doctorate in the history of art at Yale in 2009 and contributed to the YCBA’s award-winning 2007 exhibition, “Art and Emancipation in Jamaica.”

As director of the YCBA, Martin oversaw several exhibitions, including “Bridget Riley: Perceptual Abstraction,” the first retrospective of Riley’s paintings in the United States in more than two decades; “Marc Quinn: History Painting +,” an exhibition of works by the British artist; and “The Hilton Als Series: Njideka Akunyili Crosby,” which featured the works of Njideka Akunyili Crosby ’11 M.F.A.

During her tenure, Martin also helped YCBA increase educational opportunities for students and scholars. She oversaw the establishment of a Henry Moore Foundation Artist in Residence program for Yale School of Art students and a new joint postdoctoral fellowship with the National Gallery of Art’s Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts.

Last year she implemented the next phase of conservation of the YCBA’s iconic modernist building, designed by architect Louis Kahn. The project focuses on exterior improvements, including the replacement of the museum’s roof and its 224 domed skylights, as well as significant upgrades to the gallery lighting system. The YCBA is expected to reopen in April 2025.

“ These physical improvements serve as a symbol of Dr. Martin’s commitment to the future of the YCBA’s landmark building and the safeguarding of its collections for generations to come,” Salovey said.

Martin, whose YCBA tenure overlapped with the COVID-19 pandemic, developed innovative ways to fulfill the art museum’s mission even though its doors were closed to the public until March 2022. She designed the center’s first remote public program with the launch of “at home: Artists in Conversation and Architects in Conversation: To Build for Art,” which has allowed the museum to engage with more living artists than at any other point in its history.

“ Dr. Martin has brought great energy and high achievement to her role as director of the YCBA,” the president said. “She plans to complete several projects before her departure in June.”

Plans for a celebration of Martin’s accomplishments will be announced later this semester.

Salovey said he will soon launch an international search for her successor.

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Digitizing Dickens’s Working Notes 

Examining the 19th-century author’s novels through a modern lens.

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It’s a pioneering initiative: Take the working notes Charles Dickens penned when writing his  novels, digitize them, pair them with introductions and editorial comments, and in a first, make them interactive and available online. 

In doing so, the Digital Dickens Notes Project (DDNP) offers readers insight into the 19th century author’s creative mind and writing practices and new ways of interpreting texts written in a series. It also provides a fresh perspective on Dickens and makes his novels accessible to a  broader audience – from scholars and students to teachers and the general public. 

“Rather than reading the notes primarily as planning documents as they have frequently been understood, this project emphasizes their role as dynamic records of the serial process, and creates a way for students and scholars to interact with them,” said Anna Gibson, assistant teaching professor of English at NC State and co-director of the project. “The interpretative annotations explain the significance of each part and help the readers understand the entire novel.” 

Joining her as co-director is Adam Grener, senior lecturer in the English Literatures and  Creative Communication Programme at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington,  New Zealand. An inter-university team of researchers, editors and technical consultants also worked on the project, which took eight years to complete. Last year, Gibson and her team posted online the working notes of four of Dickens’s novels and plan to add those of three more. 

To understand the value of the project, it’s important to remember that Dickens’s novels were  written, published and read in installments. Until the final installment his texts essentially were novels in progress .  

With that in mind, the DDNP offers today’s readers a Victorian-era view of what it was like for  Dickens to compose his novels over as many as 19 months and in installments, said Gibson.To  manage the writing process, he penned notes for each weekly or monthly installment as he  wrote it. 

The author used the notes to plan future storylines, experiment with character names, establish images and motifs, and track plot developments. He even used them to record personal reminders and to ask himself questions that he would answer at a later time. 

“The notes help us understand how each installment functions as a single entity and as part of a whole, offering us insights into how Dickens managed these complex storylines over time,” noted  Gibson. 

Additionally, when readers click on the interactive online notes they navigate to the specific  annotation explaining the meaning behind the note, further enriching their understanding of the novel. 

The DDNP also helps illuminate how people in that period read and thought about Dickens’s  texts, Gibson said, adding that they also offer a concise way to engage students in a long and complex novel. 

”It is easier for students to understand a 900-page novel if you ask them to think about it in  parts, which is similar to their watching a TV series,” she added. “Dickens helped make the serial form popular. That’s where we get the modern-day concept of episodes,” she  explained. 

awards in creative writing

Like a TV episode, each of Dickens’s installments builds on the previous one and readers anxiously await the new episode to uncover details about the central story. 

“One way to help students understand the relevance of Dickens’s novels today is to link his  works to TV shows — to this major way students are consuming serial narrative in their own  lives,“  Gibson said. 

The DDNP also makes the author’s working notes more accessible. Typically, the notes are typed up at the back of the novels, making it difficult for readers to see just how Dickens made use of each page. The size of  words and the spacing between them, the choice and number of ink colors, and the use of  markings are not easily defined. 

The DDNP both simplifies and enriches the  novels for students and scholars.” 

Page by page the DDNP, however, offers a tapestry of different color inks, crossed-out words, underlined phrases, check marks and erasures. The only other way to view Dickens’s notes in this manner is in an archival setting, Gibson noted. The author’s working notes are bound with his manuscripts, most of which are held at the Victoria and Albert Museum’s National Art Library in London. 

“Our images are not photographs; instead, they provide legible and easy and open access to  the transcriptions of Dickens’s notes, facilitating renewed scholarly engagement with these vital records of serial composition,” she explained. ”The DDNP both simplifies and enriches the  novels for students and scholars.” 

Gibson said she and her team are applying for grants to complete the project, and add new  content and technical features. Among them are including images of the manuscript’s pages — and enabling users to toggle between the working notes and those images, and to create their own annotations. 

Key takeaways? “I would like to think that a project like the DDNP challenges our assumptions  of what scholarship looks like in the humanities and allows for a form of interaction with it that is exciting and accessible,” she said. 

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Emma Stone Thanks ‘Poor Things’ Screenwriter for ‘I Must Go Punch That Baby’ Line in BAFTAs Speech: ‘It Was Life-Changing’

By K.J. Yossman

K.J. Yossman

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LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 18: Emma Stone accepts the Leading Actress Award for 'Poor Things' during the 2024 EE BAFTA Film Awards, held at the Royal Festival Hall on February 18, 2024 in London, England.

Emma Stone thanked her mother for giving her life and her “Poor Things” screenwriter Tony McNamara for the line “I must go punch that baby” when she accepted her leading actress BAFTA award on Sunday evening.

“Tony, thank you for the line ‘I must go punch that baby.’ It was life-changing for me,” Stone said on stage, while also thanking director Yorgos Lanthimos, her fellow cast and crew and her dialect coach Neil Swain.

“I was playing a British person in this movie and [Neil] did not laugh at me when he taught me how to say ‘wart-ter,’ even though as an American I say ‘wahter,'” Stone quipped. “So thank you England for accepting me.”

Stone also served as a producer on “Poor Things.” “This was the first film that I’ve produced alongside of acting, and so it feels like doubly meaningful because they’ve just both in front of me behind. It was incredible to be part of it,” Stone said, addressing a post-awards press conference.

In “Poor Things,” Stone plays the Frankenstein-like Bella, who’s created by a reclusive Victorian doctor. She looks like an adult woman but, at the beginning of the film, has the mental capacity of a toddler and soon embarks on a sex-filled quest to understand the world around her.

Stone was up against Fantasia Barrino in “The Color Purple,” Sandra Hüller in “Anatomy of a Fall,” Vivian Oparah in “Rye Lane,” Carey Mulligan in “Maestro” and Margot Robbie in “Barbie” for the leading actress award.

This is Stone’s second BAFTA win, having previously taken home the golden mask for leading actress in 2017 for her role in “La La Land” opposite Ryan Gosling. Gosling was also nominated on Sunday evening for best supporting actor for his turn in “Barbie,” which failed to take home any awards.

Stone has also been nominated on three previous occasions: for the Rising Star award in 2011, supporting actress in 2015 for “Birdman” and leading actress in 2019 for “The Favourite.”

She is also up for a best actress Oscar at the Academy Awards next month.

Director Lanthimos was snubbed in his category, although he is up for a best director Oscar next month.

The film has earned 11 Oscar nominations overall, including best picture.

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  1. Writing Contests, Grants & Awards March/April 2024

    Three prizes of $5,500 each and publication by a participating press are given annually for a poetry collection, a short story collection, and a novel. A prize of $2,500 and... read more Austin Community College Balcones Prizes Cash Prize: $1,500 Entry Fee: $25 Application Deadline: 2/28/24 Genre: Poetry, Fiction

  2. U.S. Creative Writing Awards

    U.S. Creative Writing Awards Young writers are our future, and we believe in investing in the next generation of readers and authors. In partnership with We Need Diverse Books, we host our annual Creative Writing Awards, looking for writing with a strong, clear voice by high school seniors who are daring and original.

  3. Meet Our 2023 Creative Writing Award Winners!

    What does winning a Creative Writing Award mean to you? This award is confirmation that I should continue to write about my experiences and give voice to feelings and thoughts that connect with people. I want to shed light on experiences not spoken about to ensure that young girls like me don't feel alienated in the awkward stages of adolescence.

  4. List of writing awards

    List of writing awards This list of writing awards is an index to articles about notable awards for writing other than literary awards. It includes general writing awards, science writing awards, screenwriting awards and songwriting awards. General Science writing awards Screenwriting awards for film Screenwriting awards for television

  5. Literary Awards

    Since 1963, the PEN America Literary Awards have honored many of the most outstanding voices in literature across diverse genres, including fiction, poetry, science writing, essays, sports writing, biography, children's literature, and drama. With the help of our partners, PEN America confers over 20 distinct awards, fellowships, grants and ...

  6. Creative writing Hopwood Awards announced

    Creative writing Hopwood Awards announced. The University Michigan has announced the 2023 graduate and undergraduate winners the Avery and Jule Hopwood Awards in Creative Writing and other writing contests administered by the Hopwood Program. This year's contests had 1,005 submissions from 362 people, of which 100 were chosen as winners.

  7. Scholarships and Awards in Creative Writing

    Juniors and seniors are eligible for this award, designed for a student who is an English major and a Creative Writing minor, who qualifies for financial aid from the University, and who demonstrates a serious interest in the publishing world. This scholarship program was initially funded by Random House, in memory of Wanda Chappell '81.

  8. 2022 UW-Madison Creative Writing Prizes

    This year the prize was judged by Kate Wisel, author of Driving in Cars with Homeless Men. The Program in Creative Writing is pleased to announce that the winner of this year's William W. Marr Graduate Scholarship Prize in Creative Writing is: Madeline Curtis, for the story "Ghost Trap" — $2,500. 2022 UW-Madison Creative Writing Prizes ...

  9. Creative Writing Prizes

    Creative Writing Prizes for Undergraduates These prizes are awarded at the annual Creative Writing Awards ceremony each May. Please see the next section for submission details. The Sidney Cox Memorial Prize:

  10. English Department Awards

    The George D. Murphy Award in Creative Writing honors a longtime faculty member in the English department. The winner is chosen each year by a panel of Villanova faculty and a Philadelphia-area writer. 2023 Winner: Makena Kerns is a 3rd year student from Seattle, WA majoring in Cultural Studies with minors in English and Asian Studies. When she ...

  11. PRH Creative Writing Awards

    For nearly 30 years, the Penguin Random House Creative Writing Awards have recognized the diverse talent of graduating high school seniors. In 2019, Penguin Random House entered into an innovative partnership with We Need Diverse Books to expand the program nationally. Through this program, PRH awards college scholarships of up to $10,000 each ...

  12. 2024 Creative Writing Awards Applications Are Now Open!

    Six first-place $10,000 prizes will be awarded in the categories of: the Michelle Obama Award for Memoir, the Amanda Gorman Award for Poetry; the Maya Angelou Award for spoken-word; fiction/drama; and the new Freedom of Expression Award.

  13. Contests & Awards

    The Department of Creative Writing offers multiple writing opportunities for its students. Below are the various contest and awards available for Creative Writing undergraduates. The Chancellor's Performance Award - Up to $12,000 . The Chancellor's Performance Award is a scholarship available to first-year students who major in Creative ...

  14. Creative Writing in English

    TFA is pleased to announce the longlist for the nineteenth edition of the TOTO Awards for Creative Writing in English. From a total of 194 applications that we received, 26 young writers have been longlisted for the two awards. Their names, in no particular order, are: Faiz Ahmad, Mumbai Aditya Gautam, Bengaluru Yamini Krishnan, New Delhi

  15. Contests & Awards in Creative Writing

    The Creative Writing Program also gives several awards for outstanding performance in creative writing coursework. Recipients of these awards are selected by faculty with no application required: The Lon Tinkle Award for Excellence in Creative Writing. $1,200. The Margaret Terry Crooks Award for Excellence in Creative Writing. $1,200.

  16. Annual Creative Writing Contests

    The Cy Howard Memorial Scholarship in Creative Writing ($1,000) is awarded annually to an English Major with an Emphasis in Creative Writing, for a thesis written in any genre of creative writing. This award was established by Mrs. Barbara Howard in honor of her husband Cy, who was a graduate of UW-Madison and a writer for film and television.

  17. 2022 Creative Writing Award Winners

    We are excited to announce the winners of the 2022 Creative Writing Contests and the Creative Writing Scholarship awardees. Each year the English Department administers writing contests to recognize fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry by English majors and non-major undergraduates. Congratulations to the following students! Anne Flexner Memorial Award for Fiction Sascha Seinfeld, '23

  18. Craft or Commodity? The 'Paradox' of High School Creative Writing

    In 2019, 23 Interlochen students received national Scholastic awards for their creative writing — a distinction typically awarded to less than 1 percent of entries.)

  19. Annual Creative Writing Contest Winners Announced

    Every year the Program in Creative Writing awards up to $15,000 to undergraduates and graduate students at various stages in their studies. Here are the 2023 award winners! Charles M. Hart Writers of Promise Awards Judged by Jackie Chalghin, Nitya Gupta, RE Hawley, Phoebe Kranefuss, Aeron Parks and Robert Bynum 1st place: Hannah DeGuzman

  20. Poetry and Short Story Awards

    Find details about every creative writing competition—including poetry contests, short story competitions, essay contests, awards for novels, grants for translators, and more—that we've published in the Grants & Awards section of Poets & Writers Magazine during the past year. We carefully review the practices and policies of each contest before including it in the Writing Contests ...

  21. Distinguished Artist Award, Creative Writing

    Please contact Michelle VanDenend in the English department office at 616.395.7620 or [email protected] if you have any questions. The Distinguished Artist Award in Creative Writing is for high school seniors who intend to register at Hope College the fall of their first year at college.

  22. Fulbright/Manchester Metropolitan University Award in Creative Writing

    The Fulbright Manchester Metropolitan University Postgraduate Award covers one year of a master's degree in creative writing at the University. The Manchester Wri ting School is based at Manchester Metropolitan University, a University at the heart of a global city, with an international reputation for its creative courses.

  23. Variety's Haley Kluge Honored With ASME National Magazine Award

    Variety's creative director Haley Kluge has been honored by the American Society of Magazine Editors' 59th annual National Magazine Awards.She received an ASME NEXT Award for Journalists Under ...

  24. Rachel Carson's Sky Writing Is Now a Picture Book

    Known for her singular cut-paper art, with its stark contrasts and sharp contours, she embraced the creative challenge of finding a whole new technique in order to channel the softness of the sky.

  25. Terry Matalas and Jeri Ryan pick up Hollwood Creative Alliance Awards

    Both Jeri Ryan and Terry Matalas picked up wins from the Hollywood Creative Alliance Awards, which celebrates diverse excellence in entertainment. Matalas won an award for Best Writing for a ...

  26. Courtney Martin, director of YCBA, will lead Rauschenberg ...

    Courtney J. Martin '09 Ph.D., the Paul Mellon Director of the Yale Center for British Art (YCBA), has accepted a new appointment as executive director of the New York-based Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. Martin, a scholar of historical and contemporary art who has led YCBA since 2019, will ...

  27. Digitizing Dickens's Working Notes

    In doing so, the Digital Dickens Notes Project (DDNP) offers readers insight into the 19th century author's creative mind and writing practices and new ways of interpreting texts written in a series. It also provides a fresh perspective on Dickens and makes his novels accessible to a broader audience - from scholars and students to teachers ...

  28. Emma Stone Talks 'Poor Things' 'Punch That Baby' Line at BAFTAs

    Emma Stone thanked her mother for giving her life and her "Poor Things" screenwriter Tony McNamara for the line "I must go punch that baby" when she accepted her leading actress BAFTA ...