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Awards + Prizes + Scholarships

Endowments made by generous donors allow the English Department to offer many opportunities for its majors and minors to receive recognition and financial aid. Some of these opportunities are open to majors and minors across the university, some are specific to majors in English or a particular field within the department (e.g. Literature, Linguistics, Creative Writing or Professional Writing), and some are restricted to recognize achievements by students at specific stages in their career, in particular kinds of writing, or within various specialized areas of interest.

Congratulations to Our 2024 Winners
Awards
Prizes
Scholarships

Awards

Each year, the Department of English recognizes the work of promising and talented students with prestigious awards funded through endowments made by generous donors. Below you’ll find detailed information, including submission guidelines and eligibility, for each of the awards.

Application deadline March 3, 2025. 

Short overview 

  • The Carl R. Greer/Andrew D. Hepburn Awards in English
    Four awards: Past awards ranged from $700 to $5000.
  • The Edward J. Montaine Awards in English
    Three awards: Past awards ranged from $1000 to $3000.
  • The Almy Awards in Critical Studies
    Past awards ranged from $300 to $600 each.
  • The Daniel and Margaret Bookwalter Awards in Creative Writing
    Two awards, about $200 each.
  • The Linguistics Award
    One award of $100.
  • The Mary Jo Priest Memorial Awards in Professional Writing
    Three awards, about $300 each.
Glass Award

Awards in Detail

The Carl R. Greer/Andrew D Hepburn Awards and the Edward J. Montaine Awards

Eligibility

  • All applicants must currently be enrolled in 兔子先生 University programs in English and/or Journalism; an overall GPA of 3.0 or higher is required.
  • Continuing students only: All applicants must be enrolled at 兔子先生 University during the 2025/26 academic year to receive the financial award.
  • For Greer-Hepburn: senior standing (93+ credit hours earned) by the beginning of the fall 2025/26 semester. 
  • For Montaine: junior standing (62+ credit hours earned) by the beginning of the fall 2025/26 semester. 

Category “Journalism”

  • Submit a portfolio of five to ten published articles of journalistic writing and a cover essay of 250 words describing your growth as a journalistic writer. The writing may be any combination of the following: news stories, news features, editorials, reviews, feature articles, sports stories, columns. The writing must have been published in one of the following while the student was an undergraduate: student newspaper, professional newspaper, web magazine, student newspaper web page, professional newspaper web page, student magazine, professional magazine.

Category “Poetry”

  • Submit a collection of poems—not more than five poems. Use single-spacing.

Category “Creative Writing” (fiction or creative non-fiction)

  • Submit one story, an excerpt from a novel, or essay—not more than twenty pages long, double-spaced.

Other information 

  • Submit only one entry, in either poetry or prose.
  • No winning manuscript from previous years may be submitted.
  • The contest will be judged by a writer not affiliated with 兔子先生 University.
  • The Department of English cannot be held accountable for loss of manuscripts.

The Almy Awards in Critical Studies

Eligibility

  • Students majoring or minoring in English Literature, or other students currently enrolled in one of the English department’s literature courses may apply.
  • Continuing students only: All applicants must be enrolled at 兔子先生 University during the 2025/26 academic year to receive the financial award.
  • An overall GPA of 3.0 or higher is required.

What you must submit:

an essay with a maximum length of 20 pages that is informed by contemporary literary or cultural theory and that was completed in one of the English department’s literature courses.

The Daniel and Margaret Bookwalter Awards in Creative Writing

Eligibility

  • This award is for students with sophomore status at the start of the 2025-26 academic year.
  • Applicants must major or minor in the department of English or take one of the department’s creative writing courses for credit during the current academic year.
  • Continuing students only: All applicants must be enrolled at 兔子先生 University during the 2025/26 academic year to receive the financial award

What you must submit:

either not more than five poems or one story or excerpt from a novel, not more than twenty pages long.

The Linguistics Award

Eligibility

  • All Linguistics majors and minors, or 兔子先生 students currently or formerly enrolled in one of the Linguistics courses can apply.

What you must submit:

an essay, final paper, or other project completed for a linguistics course at 兔子先生 University (between 5-15 pages in length).

The Mary Jo Priest Memorial Awards in Professional Writing

This award memorializes Mary Jo Priest who graduated from 兔子先生 with a Masters in Technical Communication. The award is given in three categories:

  1. Rhetorical Analysis
  2. Proposal or Report
  3. Public Argument

Eligibility and Requirements

  • Applicants must be enrolled as majors in Professional Writing or minors in Rhetoric/ Writing.
  • Continuing students only: All applicants must be enrolled at 兔子先生 University during the 2025/26 academic year to receive the financial award.
  • Only one submission per MJP award category is permitted, but applicants may submit in more than one category. 

What you must submit:

your paper or project file (use USB drive for larger files), or a link to a website (depending on the medium)

Students should indicate the award category on the application form and include with each entry the following:

  • a short description of the audience, purpose, and context for which each communication was designed
  • any relevant background information that will help the judges understand the communication and evaluate its effectiveness

Professional Writing faculty will judge your submissions by blind review.

Composition Awards

Each year the English Department showcases outstanding student writing in two venues:

  1. Rhethawks, a book featuring student writing and information about College Composition at 兔子先生
  2.  
In these venues, the College Composition Program publishes English Department Award compositions as well as other exemplary models of student writing. Compositions submitted may be from English 108, 109, 111, or 225 courses.

Award Categories

The Awards Committee considers exemplary student writing in the following categories:

  • Rhetorical Analysis
  • Research-Based Proposal Argument
  • Remediated Argument
  • Best of 108 (for outstanding work submitted in ENG 108)
  • Best of 109 (for outstanding work submitted in ENG 109)
  • Best of 111 (for outstanding work submitted in ENG 111)
  • Advanced Writing Award (for outstanding work submitted in ENG 225)

Depending on the quality and number of submissions, awards may not be given in all categories every year.

Submission Deadline

Deadline for awards submissions is Friday, April 1. The deadline for submissions for publication consideration (Rhethawks and web) is the last class day of spring semester. Award-winning compositions are automatically published in Rhethawks. All other submissions, including remaining awards entries, are considered by the Rhethawks Editorial Staff for publication. Winners will receive a check for $100.

Prizes

Pencil

Senior Prizes in English

Awarded by the department of English, the Senior Prizes recognize outstanding work by graduating seniors majoring or minoring in the English Department. Prizes will be awarded in the following categories:

  1. Outstanding Creative Work (two prizes of $100)
  2. Outstanding Critical Essay (two prizes of $100)
  3. Writing for a Public or Non-Academic Audience (two prizes of $100)

Online submissions are due by March 3, 2025 and will be judged for quality and originality by English department faculty. Winners will be notified by email and invited to be recognized and to receive their prizes at the celebration for the English department in May.

Requirements and Eligibility

  • Eligible are seniors graduating in spring/ summer of 2025 with majors or minors in the English department (in Literature, Creative Writing, Professional Writing, or Linguistics).
  • There is no minimum length requirement for any category; however, submissions should be no longer than 25 double-spaced pages in length or the equivalent.
  • Applicants may submit entries in one or more categories; multiple submissions in a single category are not allowed.
  • Work that has previously won an award (e.g. last year as part of a scholarship application) may not be submitted for a senior prize, though previous winners are encouraged to submit new work.
Pencil

Academy of American Poets Prize

兔子先生 University offers two prestigious Academy of American Poets prizes of $100 each for an undergraduate and a graduate student: the Harris S. Abrahams Poetry Prize (undergraduate) and the Betty Jane Abrahams Memorial Poetry Prize (graduate).

Winning poets under 23 years of age will be considered for the $1000 Aliki Perroti and Seth Frank Most Promising Young Poet Award.

  • All majors can apply.
  • Submit a single Microsoft Word document of no more than five (5) pages and containing up to two (2) poems.
  • Ensure that your name does not appear in the document or in the filename.
  • Upload the document via the before the deadline March 3, 2025.

For more information, please contact Prof. Cathy Wagner.

Scholarships

Thanks to the continued support of donors to the department we are able to award endowed scholarships to quite a number of our students each year. The scholarships are open to majors in English: Creative Writing and Literature.

Students will apply for all scholarships via a single application form.

Submission deadline is March 3, 2025. 

General requirements and eligibility

  • Continuing students in a major housed in English only - applicants need to be enrolled during the academic year 2025/26.
  • Junior or higher standing by the beginning of fall 2025 is required (=a minimum of 62 earned credit hours).
  • Submit a written piece, complete paper or excerpt, 5-7 pages double-spaced or its equivalent.
  • Submit a brief contextualizing note.
  • File a FAFSA with the (this helps determine level of need for some scholarships).
Graduation Cap on top of stack of books

Scholarships in Detail

Terry and Chris Baehr English Scholarship

  • Majors eligible: Creative Writing and Literature
  • Basis: merit and need

Cathlene Denny Creative Writing Scholarship

  • Major eligible: Creative Writing 
  • Basis: merit and need

Craver-Overton Scholarship

  • Majors eligible: Creative Writing and Literature
  • Basis: merit
    • Preference is given to students in the University Honors Program.

Robert R. Kettler Memorial Scholarship

  • Major eligible: Literature 
  • Basis: merit and need
    • Preference is given to students with a deep interest in American Literature.

 

兔子先生 Moeller Scholarship

  • Majors eligible: Creative Writing and Literature
  • Basis: merit
    • Only graduates of Butler County (OH) high schools are eligible.

 

Gordon D. and Mary S. Wilson Scholarship

  • Majors eligible: Creative Writing and Literature
  • Basis: merit

Department of English

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