Recent Prize Winners
2019 Prize Winners
Academy of American Poets Poetry Prize
Awarded for the best poem or group of poems by an undergraduate.
- Julia Falkner ’19, “Certain Forms”
Elizabeth Babcock Poetry Prize
Awarded for the best poem by an undergraduate. Competition is not open to those who have already won the prize, nor may the poem have been printed previously.
- Ava Goga ’20, “Ovum”
- Imani (Cai) Sherley ’19, “We are both left handed”
Ethel Olin Corbin Prize
Awarded for the best original poem (preferably blank verse, sonnet or ballad) or informal essay by an undergraduate.
- Julia Smith ’19, “Variation on Saint Catherine of Siena”
Ruth Forbes Eliot Prize
Awarded for the best poem submitted by a first-year or sophomore.
- Lucy Liu ’21, “The Rye of Pondering”
- Nichol Kuipers ’22, “Moontide of Self (Belonging)”
Rosemary Thomas Poetry Prize
Awarded for the best poem or group of poems.
- Jukia Falkner ’19, “Certain Forms”
- Sophia Giattina ’19, “Catholic Guilt”
Eleanor Cederstrom Prize
Awarded for the best poem by an undergraduate, written in a traditional verse form.
- Julia Smith ’19, “Variation on Saint Catherine of Siena”
- (Honorable Mention) Ava Goga ’20, “Return to Gehenna”
Gertrude Posner Spencer Prize
Awarded for excellence in writing fiction and nonfiction prose.
- Nancy Canevari ’20, “Crossroads” (Fiction)
- Kathleen Hawes AC, “Possum Problems” (Fiction)
- (Honorable Mention) Charlotte Palmer ’19, “Angels and Willow Trees” (Fiction)
- Samantha Brown ’19, “Bob” (Nonfiction)
- Kathleen Hawes AC, “Pin-Up Girls in the Pin-Down World” (Nonfiction)
- Julia Smith ’19, “Un-resolute, Un-simplified, Un-still: the Runaway Legacy of Sylvia Plath” (Nonfiction)
- Nora Daniels ’19J, no title, (Nonfiction)
James T. and Ellen M. Hatfield Memorial Prize
Awarded to a senior majoring in English for the best short story.
- Miles Bond ’19, “Hump Day”
Elizabeth Drew Fiction Prize
Awarded for excellence in writing fiction prose.
- Emily Morris ’19, “Cool Water”
Norma M. Leas Memorial Prize
Awarded to a graduating English major for excellence in written English.
- Gracie Kinsey ’19, “Forms of Hunger: Anti-Memoir and the Self Beyond”
Emogene Mahoney Memorial Prize
Awarded for the best essay on a literary subject written by a first-year student
- Maggie McCoy ’22, “The Burden of Fate: Loki in Norse Mythology”
Elizabeth Drew Essay Prize
Awarded for the best classroom essay on a literary subject submitted by an undergraduate to a class taught by a member of the English department.
- Emma Schwartz ’21, “Brackets and Trauma in 'To The Lighthouse'’”
- Miles Bond ’19, “Speaking through the Split: Fact, Fiction, and Kingston's Cut Frenulum”
- Jackie Richardson ’21, “Reading Joseph Conrad”
Elizabeth Drew Essay Prize
Awarded for the best classroom essay on a literary subject submitted by a first-year
- Kelly Coons ’22, “‘Paul's Case’: Suspension in Setting”
Elizabeth Montagu Prize
Awarded for the best essay on a literary subject concerning women.
- Ellena Erskine ’19, “‘No Truth in Advertising’: Rotary Marriage in Edith Wharton’s ‘The Custom of the Country'’”
Elizabeth Drew Memorial Prizes
Awarded for the best honors thesis in English (creative)
- Tanya Ritchie ’19, “Them What Brung You”
Emogene Mahoney Memorial Prize
Awarded for the best honors thesis in English (critical)
- Lacey Harvey ’19, “Wordworth's Theater of Anxiety”
Helen Kate Furness Prize
Awarded for the best essay on a Shakespearean theme prepared in courses or seminars and recommended by the instructors of such courses or seminars. Honors theses are not eligible.
- Patricia Jewell ’20, “Who Wears the Pants? The Transformational Power of Clothing in Shakespeare's 'Antony and Cleopatra'”
Mary Augusta Jordan Prize
Awarded for the most original work in prose or verse by a senior.
- Julia Falkner ’19, “Septate”
Clara French Memorial Prize
Awarded to a graduating English major who has advanced further in the study of English language and literature.
- Miles Bond ’19
Vernon Harward Prize
Awarded for the best student scholar of Chaucer.
- No prize awarded
Elizabeth Wanning Harries Prize
Awarded to a graduating Ada Comstock scholar who has shown academic distinction in the study of literature in any language.
- Tanya Ritchie ’19