2023 English Literary Awards

by Shanay Butler | February 7, 2024

Each year, students from all majors submit their best work for our annual Student Literary Awards. They are judged first by a panel of creative writing faculty members, and then the top choices in each genre category are ranked by esteemed outside judges. In April, during the final weeks of classes, winners are invited to read from their work before their peers and the gathered faculty. First, second, and third prize winners are awarded a cash prize.

Here are this year's winners:

The Goronwy Owen Prize in Poetry (Group of Poems)

First: Yalda Al-Ani
Second: Alexander Lazarus Wolff
Third: Jenna Massey

The Glenwood Clark Prize in Fiction

First: Yalda Al-Ani "Daughters"
Second: Hallie Farrell "A Premature Burial"
Third: Abby Clark "The Common People and Those Who Think About Them"

The Academy of American Poets Prize (Single Poem)

First: Alexander Lazarus Wolff "The Temple in the Jungle"
Second: Yalda Al-Ani "Sestina with Six Random Words"
Third: Avery Kean "To the Opossum I Hit Coming Home from the Airport"

The Tiberius Gracchus Jones Prize for Nonfiction

First: Julia Butler "Little Orphan"
Second: Alexander Lazarus Wolff "Little Boy Blue"
Third: Anhthu Cung "Knitting My Way to Grandma"

The Howard Scammon Prize for Drama/Screenwriting

First: Olivia Little "Hot Mess"
Second: Azraf Khan "Grounds"
Third: Jarius Alexander "7 Minutes in Hell"

Outside Judges

Greg Wrenn, Laura Bylenok, Margaret Kimball, Ezra Claytan Daniels, Asako Serizawa