Department of English
Prizes
Fall 2024 Prizes
Rome Prizes
David Rome
For the best lyric essay by a currently enrolled Brown undergraduate. This form includes essays written in poetical or experimental forms that emphasize artfulness.
Winners
1st Place: Deeya Prakash, The Space Between Us
2nd Place: Mackenzie Ford, The Inside of a Rose-Leaf
Rose Low Rome
For the best poem or poems written by a currently enrolled Brown undergraduate.
Winners
1st Place: Marlena Brown, “No plains,” “Sexless,” “Expanse”
2nd Place: Anika Kotapally, On the Potential for Miracles
Arlene Rome Ten Eyck & Peter H. Ten Eyck
For the best essay on literary theory by a currently enrolled Brown undergraduate.
Winners
1st Place: Paulina Gąsiorowska, Neither Poet Nor Prophet; Or, the Tongue of the Translator
2nd Place: Isabel Roth-Dishy, Zany Spectacles: Sianne Ngai and Barbara Johnson
Deadline
Tuesday, December 3, 2024
Prizes
1st Prize $150
2nd Prize $50
Barbara Banks Brodsky Prizes
Barbara Banks Brodsky - Real-World Writing
Awarded to a full-time junior or senior. Submission may come from the spectrum of nonfiction: literary journalism, memoir, or narrative based on travel, science, history, and cultural critique. Submission should be limited to 3,000 words or less; can be a collection of brief pieces or one long piece.
Winner
Rachel Metzger, To Soča
Barbara Banks Brodsky - English
For the best essay on 20th-century English literature by a junior or senior.
Winner
Angela Chen, Whistles from the dark: Dreamworlds in Lu Xun & Can Xue
Deadline
Tuesday, December 3, 2024
Prizes
1st Prize $800
Spring 2025
Preston Gurney Prizes
Fiction
For the best essay of 5,000 words or less on any topic in literary criticism (fiction) by a senior
Winner
Evan McHenry, “Incomplete”: Fictionalization as Denial in Never Let Me Go
Poetry
For the best essay of 5,000 words or less on any topic in literary criticism (poetry) by a senior
Winner
Evan McHenry, Cyrus Console's Chaos World
Cultural Criticism
For the best essay of 5,000 words or less on any topic in cultural criticism by a senior
Winners
1st Place: San Kwon, Paranoid Reading, Reparative Reading, and the Surprise of Ellipticity
2nd Place: Rachel Kamphaus, Who’s Afraid of Experimental Texts?: Postmodernism, Writing, and Horror in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining
Deadline
Thursday, March 20, 2025
Prizes
1st Prize $TBD
2nd Prize $TBD
Betsy Amanda Lehman '77 Memorial Award for Excellence in Journalism
There are two first prizes for this award. One is for print and/or online written journalism and one is for audio/video journalism. Entries for the latter must be accompanied by a written script. Pieces will be judged on the strength of their reporting and writing. You must be a Brown senior to enter. Your submission may include one longer feature or a collection of no more than three shorter pieces. Extensive journalism experience or extensive journalism coursework is not required
Winners
1st place: Megan Talikoff, "Decriminalize Prostitution? Local sex workers argue 'yes' with newly published research."
2nd place: Maya Davis, "Polio vaccines are coming to children in Gaza. What roads await them."
The Casey Shearer Memorial Award for Excellence in Creative Nonfiction
Awarded to a full-time Brown junior or senior for creative nonfiction of 3,000 words or less. Submission can be a collection of brief pieces or one long piece.
Winners
1st place: Rya Vallabhaneni, The Clouds at Yuganta
2nd place: Anonymous
Deadline
Sunday, February 23, 2025
Prizes
1st Prize $1,000
2nd Prize $500
Rules
- One entry per competition. A separate entry form must be completed for each competition.
- Your name should not appear anywhere on the manuscript.
- The university reserves the right to withhold any award.
- Manuscripts will be read by a committee of faculty members in the English Department. The committee's decisions will be final.
- Essays that have previously received an English Department award are not eligible.
No hard copies or late submissions will be accepted.