2024 Department of English Awards Competitions
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
DEADLINE: Friday, March 8th, 2024 by 4 pm.
Address any questions to Paul Outka, Chair, Awards Committee paul.outka@ku.edu
Guidelines:
- Students applying for “scholarships” and “fellowships” must be enrolled full-time during the following semester (6 hours for graduate students; 12 hours for undergraduates). Graduating students are eligible for all “awards” and contests not specified as “scholarships.”
- “Study of Literature” / essay competitions are open to students across campus, except where otherwise noted.
- Creative Writing competitions do not require a student be an English major for undergraduate awards, or an English graduate student for graduate awards.
- Only English majors & English graduate students are eligible for scholarships.
- Only ONE entry per student per contest unless otherwise specified.
All applications require electronic submission. Forms for each contest are linked below. You must submit a separate form for each contest you wish to enter, including attaching the documents specified in the instruction for each award & an updated CV or resume. In your submissions, please attach documents in .pdf, .doc, or .rtf only.
If any of the materials are missing, the entry will be disqualified. Deadline for applications—Friday, March 8th, 2024 by 4 pm.
Graduate Student Awards
Dr. Anne Marie Turner Award
The Department of English will provide a single annual award to a graduate student in English at the University of Kansas who has done outstanding research in the field of American literature as demonstrated by a project of publishable quality.
ELIGIBILITY: Any graduate student enrolled in the Department of English during the academic year in which the award is to be presented is eligible. Student must be nominated by a faculty member.
CRITERIA: The project may be a research paper written for a course, an MA thesis, a doctoral dissertation chapter, or a scholarly article; must concern American literature; and must be of publishable quality. Candidates must be nominated by a professor in the Department of English; nomination letters can be submitted up until March 8th.
For faculty submitting nominations: SUBMIT HERE
For graduate students submitting applications: SUBMIT HERE
Kenneth Rockwell Award
For excellence in the study of literature. Open to all English graduate students. Please submit one critical essay and a Degree Progress Report. Nomination by a faculty member is NOT required.
William Albrecht Memorial Scholarship
Graduate students enrolled in English at the University of Kansas are invited to submit an application for this lucrative award. Winners must be returning to KU for at least one more semester of study.
Guidelines:
Provide a CV, including information concerning the grades you have earned and the relevant courses you have completed. No letters of recommendation are necessary. Merely give the judging committee a summary of your academic background. Also list past awards and titles of winning projects.
Submit a research proposal. Please explain, if appropriate, how this project is related to your submissions from previous academic years. These awards have been established to provide substantial support and opportunity for significant research, and candidates should submit proposals that are commensurate with those goals. The proposal should be at least three pages, and it should not exceed five pages. Be as thorough and as specific as possible. For the purposes of these awards, original writing (prose, poetry, drama) is considered “research.” You should enhance and support your proposal with whatever materials you deem appropriate.
Margaret Fuller Award
The Department of English will provide a single award to a graduate student in English with an interest in Feminist studies.
Please submit one paper demonstrating your scholarship in this area, as well as a Degree Progress Report and a brief statement of how feminist studies informs the focus of your graduate work.
Henry Matthew Weidner Creative Writing Award - Fiction
Open to graduate students. Submit a portfolio of three short stories or a novel fragment in a single file.
Henry Matthew Weidner Creative Writing Award - Poetry
Open to graduate students. Submit ten pages of poetry in a single file.
Teaching Awards
Outstanding Instructor Award
The Department of English at the University of Kansas will recognize Graduate Teaching Assistants or Lecturers who have distinguished themselves by the quality of their teaching.
ELIGIBILITY: All Graduate Teaching Assistants and Lecturers in the department of English who have completed at least one full year of teaching in the department are eligible for this award. Instructors who have not won this award in the past year will receive higher priority.
Applicants should submit a brief statement (approximately 250 words) highlighting significant elements of their teaching activity. Applicants are invited to provide the Awards Committee with additional relevant materials, e.g., copies of assignments, handouts, projects, syllabi, lesson plans.
Judges will have access to FYW files, so you do not need to copy and include recommendation letters and student evaluations.
Selden Lincoln Whitcomb Fellowship
RESTRICTIONS: GRADUATE STUDENT/TEACHERS WHO ARE AT LEAST IN THE SECOND YEAR OF TEACHING IN THIS DEPARTMENT
For excellence in scholastic research and promise in the field of teaching. Please submit a short personal statement on how your teaching and scholarship intersect (approximately 250 words), one critical essay, and evidence of exemplary classroom teaching. Judges will have access to FYW files, so you do not need to copy and include recommendation letters and student evaluations.
Stephen F. Evans Award
For excellence in course development. The Department of English at the University of Kansas will recognize Graduate Teaching Assistants or Lecturers who have distinguished themselves by the quality of their course design and development.
ELIGIBILITY: All Graduate Teaching Assistants and Lecturers in the department of English who have completed at least one full year of teaching in the department are eligible for this award. Instructors will need to have designed a complete course (this includes approved Topics 101 and 102 courses) and taught the course to demonstrate the excellence of the course design. Instructors who have not won this award in the past year will receive higher priority. Instructors may only submit one course design for consideration.
Applicants should submit a statement (500-750 words) highlighting significant elements of their course design including the theory and principles that governed their design choices, the ways that course encourages students to meet the stated course goals, and a reflection about what worked and what they would change about the course they designed having taught the course. Applicants should also provide the course syllabus and schedule, the assignment sequence, and examples of 2-3 handouts and lesson plans that demonstrate elements of the course design discussed in the statement.
Judging: Members of the First Year Writing Committee will read and rank the entries independently.
Mabel S. Fry Award
RESTRICTIONS: Full-time Teaching Faculty
For excellence in teaching. Must be nominated by an undergraduate or graduate student of the department. Interested students should submit a short letter of recommendation directly to the Presidents of SAGE.
Submit your nomination via email to Sarah Kugler (sarah_kugler@ku.edu) & Jade Harrison (j.harrison@ku.edu) by FRIDAY, MARCH 8th, 2023, 4:00 PM. If you have any questions, please contact Sarah Kugler & Jade Harrison.
Undergraduate Student Awards
Helen Rhoda Hoopes Award
Open to students who are undergraduate women. For the best essay submitted in fulfillment of a regular class assignment. Papers need not be retyped, although revision and retyping is allowed. Submit one paper (only one essay per student).
Henry Matthew Weidner Award
Open to students who are undergraduate men. For the best essay submitted in fulfillment of a regular class assignment. Papers need not be retyped, although revision and retyping is allowed. Submit one paper (only one essay per student). Entries may also be considered for the Rockwell Award.
Kenneth Rockwell Award
For excellence in the study of literature.
Open to all undergraduate students. For the best essay submitted in fulfillment of a regular class assignment. Papers need not be retyped, although revision and retyping is allowed. Submit one paper (only one essay per student).
Ilus W. Davis Award
For excellence in expository writing by undergraduate students. Submit one paper (one essay per student).
Sean Pauzauskie Literature and Medicine Award
This award is intended to provide financial support for undergraduate students in the English Department who are considering a career in healthcare. To apply, submit a 1-2 page personal statement describing the applicant's healthcare-related career goals and the connections they see between the study of literature and medicine.
William Herbert Carruth Memorial Poetry Contest
Open to all undergraduate students. Entrants may submit from one to three poems.
Edgar Wolfe Award in Fiction
Open to undergraduate students. Submit one fiction story.
John F. Eberhardt Excellence in Writing Award
Scholarship for Double/Dual Majors and Minors (one of the majors must be English or an English minor). Applicants may be in literature, creative writing, or literature, rhetoric, and writing.
Application must include:
- A statement describing the importance of English as your double/dual major or minor
- A resume
- A writing sample
Ellie Stratman Award for Writing About the Arts
Open to undergraduate students. For excellence in writing about the arts. Submit one essay about or relating to the arts (dance, music, theatre, etc). Essays written for regular class assignments are applicable.
Award for Excellence in 200-Level Writing Courses
The Department of English will recognize excellence in writing in 200-level courses with a certificate of achievement and small monetary award to an undergraduate student for a paper written to fulfill an assignment in English 203 or English 209-211 courses. Student writing produced in Spring 2023 after the last awards deadline, over Summer 2023, or in Fall 2023 is eligible for consideration, provided that the student-author currently is enrolled at the University of Kansas. Students in any major are eligible for this award.
The paper submitted may be the original submission or a revised version, but it must be a clean copy, without the instructor’s comments or grade.
First Year Writing Awards
The Department of English is pleased to announce that it will recognize excellence in writing with certificates of achievement and small monetary awards to as many as two student winners for papers written in fulfillment of assignments in English 101, two student winners for papers written in fulfillment of assignments from ENGL 102, and one student winner for a paper written in fulfillment of assignments in English 105. Along with a certificate and monetary award, the work of student winners also will be considered for publication in the next edition of The First Year Writer’s Companion, a departmental publication for students in these courses.
Important: Student work submitted last spring after the official submission deadline as well as during summer of 2023 also is eligible for consideration, provided the student-author currently is enrolled at the University.
The papers may be the originals or revised, but they should not bear the instructor’s comments or grade.
Only one paper per student is allowed.
All applications require electronic submission. In your email submissions, please do the following:
- Attach submissions in .pdf, .doc, or .rtf only
- Type your last name and the course for which you wrote the assignment in the subject line
- Send the e-mail to fywwritingaward@ku.edu
Judging: Members of the First Year Writing Committee will read and rank the papers independently.
Open to All - Undergraduate & Graduate Awards
Thomas J. O'Donnell Award in Creative Nonfiction
Open to both graduate and undergraduate students. Submit one creative nonfiction essay.
Maxwell Nature Writing Contest
Open to both graduate and undergraduate students. Submit one nature essay or a short story with a nature or environmental element to it.
Gunn Center Award for Speculative Fiction
The founder of the Gunn Center for the Study of SF, James E. Gunn was committed to the idea that science fiction, as the literature of change and the human species, could inspire its readers to shape the future. In honor of Professor Gunn’s legacy and ideals, this competition is open to both graduate and undergraduate students, honoring the best speculative fiction story written in a KU English class.
Cynthia Reiss-Clark Writing Award
This prize recognizes undergraduate and graduate students in STEM fields whose writing about science and technology clearly, effectively, and gracefully makes scientific topics broadly accessible to wider audiences. By supporting conversations between scientists, humanists, and the general public, winners of Cynthia Reiss-Clark Award will contribute to the mutually informing dialogue that is critical to a deeper understanding of the opportunities and challenges that the future holds.
Application must include a writing sample that demonstrates a commitment to making scientific topics accessible to the wider community, and a statement (250 words max) describing how the author understands the importance of such interdisciplinary conversations.