Active Undergraduate Awards

Spring 2009 Undergraduate Literary Prize Awards: Poetry

Spring 2009 Undergraduate Literary Prize Awards: Fiction

Spring 2009 Traveling Quinn Awards

The Traveling Quinn Awards recognize achievement and potential in Creative Writing by Junior and Senior Creative Writing Majors only.

Applicants may apply for one of a limited number of Traveling Quinn Awards by submitting a sample of their work (creative nonfiction, 1-2 pieces, no more than 15 pages; fiction, 1-2 stories or an excerpt, no more than 15 pages; poetry, 3-5 poems, no more than 7 pages) and a statement of purpose (no more than 200 words explaining where you want to go, why you want to go there, and how the experience will impact your writing) to the English Department in 208 English Building by noon on Monday, February 16.

The winners will be announced before Spring Break.

An informational meeting will be held Wednesday, February 4 at 4:00 PM in 107A English Building.

Recipients of a Traveling Quinn Award will receive a scholarship to one of several predetermined writing workshops the following summer or, if approved by faculty, to a workshop students have researched and chosen for themselves. This scholarship, worth up to $2,000, will be applied toward tuition of the workshop, travel, room and board.

Some potential writing workshops are listed below:
Aspen Summer Words
Hudson Valley Writer íxs Center
Dodge Poetry Festival
Fine Arts Work Center
Split Rock Arts Program
Indiana University Writer íxs Conference
Iowa Summer Writer íxs Festival
International Women Writer íxs Guild
Taos Summer Writer íx Conference
Wesleyan Writer íxs Conference
Naropa Summer Writing Program




Past Undergraduate Awards

Spring 2008 Undergraduate Literary Prize Awards in Poetry

Garin Cycholl is the author of Blue Mound to 161, Nightbirds, and the forthcoming Rafetown Georgics. His recent work has appeared in Admit2, Seven Corners, and Seneca Review. He teaches writing and literature at the University of Illinois at Chicago and is a visiting lecturer in the Committee on Creative Writing at the University of Chicago.

Forty-eight writers submitted poems. Below are the winners and excerpts from the judge íxs comments.

Folger Adam, Jr. Prize, $1,000 (sponsored by Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity): Caleb Curtiss, íxCommon Roots. íÿ The poem íxs occasion here is the íxprairie sky í"its penchant for grayness, íÿ the poet íxs íxsurrender [of]...;shadow to the dull lack of shadows. íÿ Here, though, that occasion is not the dissolution of the poet íxs voice in sunless ambiguities, but rather the coincidence of place itself í the meeting of shadow, soil, a flock of birds, a car horn, and the poem íxs song itself í all black against Illinois sky, itself as driving as the íxhunger íÿ in the birds íx eyes.

Thatcher H. Guild Prize, $500: James Knippen, íxBrookside Mine. íÿ Here, the poet explores the coal íxs black veins, a miner íxs íxblack lung íÿ sickness, and the mythologies that bind work and place. Engaging the larger narratives of working space in America, the poem details the intricacies of the mine íxs descent, íxits skips, pipes, & cable...;the clean air íÿ blackening and íxfalling into chasms & orepass. íÿ This descent is mythological, but also physical and waged, worth íxbetween 17 & 32 dollars a day. íÿ

American Academy of Poets Prize, $100: Rafael Ibay, íxConquistador. íÿ The poet invokes a character here who could have stepped out of William Carlos Williams íx In the American Grain, a ruthless explorer who is sea sick, land sick, and lost. The prose poem shakes the work at hand and offers a renewed sense of the land that is, according to Cormac McCarthy, íxhard on people. íÿ

Spring 2007 Undergraduate Literary Prize Awards in Fiction

Erin Soros, this year íxs judge, has published fiction, non-fiction and poetry in Canadian, American, Australian, and Irish journals and anthologies. New work appeared in the Canadian magazine enRoute, is forthcoming in the Montreal based magazine Matrix and has been solicited for CBC radio íxs Between the Covers and Definitely Not the Opera. A recent publication was chosen as a íxNotable Essay íÿ in The Best American Essays 2005. A forthcoming story won first prize in the Indiana Review fiction contest. Excerpts from Soros's comments on the winning stories appear below.

John L. Rainey Prize, $1,000 (sponsored by Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity):

íxGuarding Main Street, íÿ Breanne Reinhard. "This story was so striking to me in its control í of narrative tension, atmospheric setting, character development, syntax and image and finally the frighteningly understated resolution.

Charles and Susan Shattuck Prize, $500: íxShe Reminds Me of Her, íÿ Aubrey Reynolds.

"The title, its confusion of pronouns, clues the reader to the slipperiness of identity, especially when it comes to sexual relationships í"At its base, the story is about failure of communication, and how language sometimes aids this failure. Yet the writer is a master of rhythm and image and the careful, caring use of words."

Josephine M. Bresee Memorial, $400: íxThink Rape, íÿ Charles Sapienza.

"The writer makes sophisticated choices in terms of narrative structure í shifting back and forth from past to present í and also about the telling of trauma: what is most effective in this piece is the narrator íxs confusion and emotional flatness in response to an experience she finds difficult to understand."

Leah Trelease Prize, $300: íxNot Like Him, íÿ Autumn West.

"Of all the stories I read, this piece had the most compelling first paragraph. The opening sentence í 'The south side of Chicago breathes short, shallow breaths' í was alone enough for me to know I wanted to stay with this story."

Spring 2007 Undergraduate Literary Prize Awards in Poetry

Allison Funk, this year's judge, is a poet, editor, and translator of Catalan poetry. She has published three books of poems: The Knot Garden (Sheep Meadow, 2002); Living at the Epicenter (Northeastern, 1995); and Forms of Conversion (Alice James, 1986). Her second book of poems won the Samuel French Morse Prize and the Society of Midland Authors Award. Her poems have been included in The Best American Poetry, The Paris Review, Poetry; Shenandoah, Field, The Georgia Review, Iowa Review, Image, and many other journals and anthologies. Funk co-edits the national literary journal Sou íxwester at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, where she is Professor of English and Creative Writing. Excerpts from her comments on the winning poems appear below.

Folger Adam, Jr. Prize, $1,000 (sponsored by Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity):

íxResurgence, íÿ Xiaorong Jajah Wu. "After many readings of 'Resurgence,' I continue to be impressed by how powerfully this poet conveys the experience of being an immigrant. The poem also leaves me pondering what it is to be human."

Thatcher H. Guild Prize, $500: íxRomulus and Remus, íÿ Phillip Williams.

"This poem impresses me in the ways it re-imagines the story of Romulus and Remus, the twin brothers, who, according to legend, founded Rome í"The poem succeeds in conveying the awful fear experienced by many of us when we sense that a trust is about to be broken."

American Academy of Poets Prize, $100: íxOn W. Touhy, Chicago, IL, íÿ Jeff Waxman.

íxOn W. Touhy, Chicago, IL íÿ is a beautifully written prose poem structured in three parts í"I admire the poet íxs invention: how he/she structures the poem as a brief journey from one address to another on a particular street--one which reminds the speaker of his/her complicated relationship to a history and culture.

About the Undergraduate Literary Prize Awards in Poetry

The English Department sponsors and administers the following undergraduate literary prizes in poetry: Folger Adam, Jr. Prize, $1,000 (sponsored by Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity); Thatcher H. Guild, $500; American Academy of Poets, $100.

About the Undergraduate Literary Prize Awards in Fiction

The English Department sponsors and administers the following undergraduate literary prizes in fiction: John L. Rainey Prize, $1,000 (sponsored by Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity); Charles and Susan Shattuck Prize, $500; Josephine M. Bresee Memorial, $400, Leah Trelease Prize, $300.

Traveling Quinn Award

The Traveling Quinn Awards recognize achievement and potential in Creative Writing by Junior and Senior Creative Writing Majors.

Recipients of a Traveling Quinn Award will receive a scholarship to one of several predetermined writing workshops the following summer or, if approved by faculty, to a workshop students have researched and chosen for themselves. This scholarship, worth up to $2,000, will be applied toward tuition of the workshop, travel, room and board.