Awards

Guidelines | Undergraduate awards | Graduate awards | Current recipients | Past recipients 

The Department of English offers approximately 25 donor-supported awards for exemplary student work in a wide array of genres, from essays to creative writing (poetry and prose) to rhetoric, professional writing, and digital design. Many of these awards have been made possible by the generosity of student and faculty alumni who are proud to acknowledge the superb calibre and range of work of our students. Actual award values will be confirmed and published on or around the final submission deadline.

Some awards require faculty nomination; others allow submissions directly from students; still others are awarded based on grades or set examinations. Please see the awards descriptions for more information. If you would like your work to be considered for an award that doesn’t allow direct student submission, you can ask your instructor to consider nominating it. Please make sure that you follow the submission guidelines carefully: any submissions that do not follow the guidelines will be disqualified.

The deadline for student- and faculty-submitted award nominations is January 24, 2025.

Awards are formally presented at the department’s annual Awards Ceremony, held at the end of the Winter semester. Award winners will be notified by the week before the ceremony.

Please see the English graduate awards and English undergraduate awards pages for information about specific awards. 

Please go to past award winners for a list of last year's recipients.

Hear from our donators and award contributors