Department of English
Prizes
Fall 2025 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.
1st place: Noa Brown, Gestation
2nd place: Kate Rowberry, Eureka in an Empty Bathtub
Rose Low Rome
For the best poem or poems written by a currently enrolled Brown undergraduate.
1st place: Lucas Friedman-Spring, Heat and Shade
2nd place: Elaine Rand, Then and Now; Lockjaw; In the subconscious landscape of another’s dream; Everything the Lightning Touches, or How to Greet a Memory
Arlene Rome Ten Eyck & Peter H. Ten Eyck
For the best essay on literary theory by a currently enrolled Brown undergraduate.
1st place: Rishabh Rao, Bakhtin on Beauty: Dialogical Ideas of the Idea in Contemporary British Fiction
2nd place: Clara Baisinger-Rosen, Blank Page Against the Machine: The Ways of the Writerly Text
Deadline
Wednesday, December 3, 2025
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: Naya Melvani, Someday We May Fly
Barbara Banks Brodsky - English
For the best essay on 20th-century English literature by a junior or senior.
Winner: Cecilia Hult, The Impossibility of Adulthood in Flannery O’Connor’s The River
Deadline
Wednesday, December 3, 2025
Prizes
1st Prize TBD
Spring 2026
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 | Essay Title |
| 1st: Thomas Griffin | Mechanized Society in ‘Resistance to Civil Government’ and Bartleby, the Scrivener |
| 2nd: Abigail Ryan | “Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie:” Self-Fashioning, Virtue, and Nobility in All’s Well That Ends Well |
Poetry
For the best essay of 5,000 words or less on any topic in literary criticism (poetry) by a senior
| Winner | Essay Title |
| 1st: Cecilia Hult | Infecund Patriarchal States: Dysfunctional Wombs and the Genesis of Procreation in John Milton’s Paradise Lost |
| 2nd: Elizabeth Carroll | Desire and Delight, Lacking and Looking: Adam, Satan, and the Male Gaze in Paradise Lost |
Cultural Criticism
For the best essay of 5,000 words or less on any topic in cultural criticism by a senior
| Winner | Essay Title |
| Ela Snyder | "Nothing but Human Beings:" the Limitations of Citizenship in Arendt's We Refugees |
Deadline
Thursday, March 19, 2026
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.
Deadline
Thursday, March 19, 2026
Prizes
1st Prize $1,000
2nd Prize $500
| Winner | Title |
| 1st: Yui Miura | Two Babies, One Lifeline |
| 2nd: Sophia Wotman | DPS Officers… |
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 | Essay Title |
| 1st: Axel Martinez | Untitled |
| 2nd: Lydell Dyer | Salvage |
Deadline
Thursday, March 19, 2026
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.