Department of English
Prizes
Fall 2023 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 | Title | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Fara Odunlami | "the crack" |
| 2nd | Lucy Cooper-Silvis | "Invasive: A New Prayer for the Land" |
Rose Low Rome
For the best poem or poems written by a currently enrolled Brown undergraduate.
| Winners | Title | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Jules Griswold | "Five Poems for Saving Money" |
| 2nd | Julian Ansorge | "How To Live" |
Arlene Rome Ten Eyck & Peter H. Ten Eyck
For the best essay on literary theory by a currently enrolled Brown undergraduate.
| Winners | Title | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Corinne Leong | "Take Everything Away: The Body without Organs and Liberatory Memory in Never Let Me Go" |
| 2nd | Daniel Zheng | "The World Without Animals" |
Deadline
Friday, December 1, 2023
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 | Title |
|---|---|
| Corrine Leong | "The Women That Loves You" |
Barbara Banks Brodsky - English
For the best essay on 20th-century English literature by a junior or senior.
| Winner | Title |
|---|---|
| Lucia Kan-Sperling | "“The more I observe…”: Defamiliarization and Artificial Intelligence in Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun" |
Deadline
Friday, December 1, 2023
Prizes
1st Prize $800
Spring 2024
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 | Title |
|---|---|
| Solveig Asplund | “"It’s always flowing in a stream, never the same”: Exploring Individualized Male Flow Through Urination, Ejaculation, and Bathing in Ulysses" |
Poetry
For the best essay of 5,000 words or less on any topic in literary criticism (poetry) by a senior
| Winners | Title | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Julian Ansorge | “All we know / is that we are a little early:” Arriving Early to Ashbery’s “Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror” |
| 2nd | Everest Maya-Tudor | "The Multidimensionality of Love in Chaucer’s “The Parliament of Fowls” |
Cultural Criticism
For the best essay of 5,000 words or less on any topic in cultural criticism by a senior
| Winners | Title | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Lucia Kan-Sperling | “Contingency, Facticity, and the Productive Potential of the Encounter: Althusser, Daston, Wilson" |
| 2nd | Annie Stein | "The Teenybopper Stage: Endless Male Pubescence in Mike Nichols' The Graduate" |
Deadline
Thursday, March 21, 2024
Prizes
1st Prize $1,000
2nd Prize $500
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.
| Winner | Title | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Noble Brigham | "They died alone without family or friends. What happens to their earthly remains?" |
| 2nd | Nicholas Miller | "Untitled" |
Deadline
Thursday, March 21, 2024
Prizes
1st Prize $1,000
2nd Prize $500
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.
| Winner | Title | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Kathy Wang | "A Growing History" |
| 2nd | Yukti Agarwal | "26/11" |
Deadline
Thursday, March 21, 2024
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.