Undergraduate Program
Department Prizes
Congratulations to this year's prize winners!
Categories of Submission
Other Prizes
General Instructions and Requirements
Deadlines
Prize Submission Cards
Categories of Submission
Besides prizes based on instructors' assessment of overall academic performance, the Prizes Committee of the English Department administers eighteen prizes for written work as judged by members of the Committee. Some of these prizes are ordinarily awarded to more than one student, especially when the income on the endowment of the prize is substantial. The following are the categories in which writing is considered for prizes.
Category A: Poetry
All registered students, graduate or undergraduate, may compete for the Academy of American Poets prize (for the group of poems, unpublished or published in a university magazine), the Cook prize (for the best unpublished group of poems), and the Gordon Barber Memorial prize for poetry. In addition, the Prizes Committee may award all or some of the "James Veech Prize for imaginative writing" to poetry contestants. Submissions by freshmen will also be eligible for the Meeker prize, fractions of which may be reserved for verse or fiction. Students may submit up to six pages of poetry. If your poems are many but short it is better to select four to five pages of your best.
Freshmen should put their entries in category A-1, all others in A-2. Although it is not impossible for a freshman to receive the judges' choice for the Academy of American Poets prize -- indeed, this has happened -- the fact that there is more prize money allocated for freshman work of all kinds than there is for the genre of poetry by itself makes it reasonable for the committee to start, at least, by reading freshman verse for freshman prizes. Submit poetry entries in triplicate.
Upperclassmen who have previously competed should submit packets of new work. A student who has won a prize for poetry may not, in a later year, submit the same poems for our poetry competition; a student who has not won a prize and who wishes to reenter should limit resubmission to one of the poems from the earlier packet; the rest should be new work.
Category B: Fiction
Undergraduates may submit one work of fiction. This will in most cases be a single short story, although the committee will consider a unified cycle of short stories or even a novel. Teachers of fiction classes may nominate a story as the best from the class, and the student may submit another story on his or her own. NB: Entries should be of reasonable length. Students in the Writing Concentration or others who have written a novel or novella might consider the option of submitting one chapter and accompanying it with a brief explanation of how the selection fits in the larger context. If you choose to submit a whole novel or cycle of stories, the Prizes Committee needs, for at least one round, to be able to compare submissions of similar sizes. You must therefore attach a note specifying which story of the cycle or which 20-or-so page piece of the novel--or play--you choose for such consideration. Failure to so specify will not eliminate your submission from consideration; but it may significantly decrease your chances because at least one judge will be making an arbitrary choice of the fragment to read. PLAYS: There are no prizes designated specifically for plays. If the Committee receives a play that it wishes to honor, it will find a way. Submit under category B. Fiction by freshmen should be placed in category B-1; fiction by others in B-2. Submit fiction entries in duplicate.
Category C: Journalism and General Non-Fiction Other than Literary Criticism
C-1: Undergraduates may submit one piece of general non-fiction in competition for the Wright Memorial prize (for the "best descriptive, imaginative, or journalistic article, 2500 to 5000 words").
C-2: Juniors and seniors may compete for the John Hersey Prize "for a body of journalistic work" reflecting the spirit and ideals of John Hersey: engagement with moral and social issues, responsible reportage, and craftsmanship. Submit three to six articles, at least the majority of which have been published.
Students who have written op-ed pieces for the Yale Daily News or reviews or feature stories, published or unpublished, sometimes ask whether they should compete for the Hersey or single out their best piece for the Wright. Students who submit a packet of journalism for the Hersey competition may also submit a single piece for the Wright; that piece may be, but does not have to be, something submitted for the Hersey. Since a student cannot win both these prizes the same year, underclassmen may wish to submit only for the Wright and to wait till they have accumulated more of a body of work to compete for the Hersey.
C-3: Students in the Writing Concentration Program and others who have written pieces of non-fiction too long for the Wright may compete separately for a portion of the Veech prize that may be allocated for such work. The due date for these entries is the same established by the Writing Concentration program, generally one day after the general prize deadline.
Categories D-H: Literary Essays
Each student may submit only one -- unless additional entries are selected by the instructor and accompanied by a note to that effect.
Category D: Essays by Freshmen
All freshmen are eligible to compete for prizes in composition: the Bloch ("for the best Freshman essay"), Townsend, and Meeker. In order to fulfill the intention specified by the McLaughlin Memorial -- "the encouragement of English composition" -- the Prizes Committee considers submissions in six separate categories and reserves the McLaughlin for work in the first three:
D-1, Essays written for English 114 or 116. (In all categories, the work written for a particular course may be substantially revised by the student for this competition.)
D-2, Essays written for English 115 or 117.
D-3, Essays written for English 120, freshman journalism and general expository essays written by freshmen for other courses or no course.
D-4, Essays written for English 125 by freshmen.
D-5, Essays written for English 127 by freshmen.
D-6, Essays written for English 129 or Literature Directed Studies by freshmen, and freshman essays in literary criticism written for other courses.
Please be sure that the course number as well as your pseudonym and year is on your title page. Submit one essay. Upperclassmen enrolled in 100-level courses must submit their essays in categories E, F and H -- not D.
Category E: Essays by Sophomores
The Betts prize is awarded "for meritorious work in required composition." The Prizes Committee interprets this to mean that any sophomore's essay written for an English course (or written for another course on a topic in English literature) is eligible. Submit one essay. If more than one essay is declared a prize winner, the department awards part or parts of the Curtis prize to sophomores. Such prizes are not restricted to work originally submitted for courses.
Category F: Essays by Juniors
The Department reserves for juniors the Curtis prize for essays in literary criticism. Pieces of descriptive or journalistic writing should be submitted in C-1. Submit under F work not eligible for G. Essays on Nabokov or others who might be considered American authors should be submitted under G.
Category G: Essays on American Literature or American Themes
Juniors and seniors may compete for the Schoenberg prize, "for the best essay on some American poet or some phase of American poetry," and for the Strong prize, "for the best essay on a phase of American literature or the best story on an incident in the lives of American people." But if you have a short story that qualifies, please submit it under category B rather than G. A senior with a short essay that could be submitted under category G should submit it here rather than H1; pieces of sixteen or more pages should be submitted under H2 or H3, even if they are on American literature. Judges of "G" submissions will not be restricted to the two prizes reserved for Americana and may award to some of the entries prizes named in "F" or "H."
Category H: Essays by Seniors
Seniors majoring in English may compete for the Paine Memorial Prize ("for the best Senior Essay") and all seniors who have taken English courses may compete for the Mifflin Prize ("for Senior Essays in English or American Literature").
The English Department has interpreted "Senior essay" to mean any essay written by a Senior, and therefore the Committee considers term papers as well as formal Senior Essays for these prizes. A certain largeness of scope is ordinarily required for these prizes. A portion of the Curtis prize, however, may be reserved for senior pieces of smaller scope. Please put shorter pieces (up to 15 pages) in Category H-1, longer essays in Category H-2.
Category H-3: Senior Essays (written for English 490)
Seniors need not submit copies of their Senior Essays (pieces written for English 490). The readers of the Senior Essay will put these up for consideration if they deem them likely contenders. Essays with one or two grades of A will automatically be added to the competition. Writers of senior essays may submit one other essay written in their senior year.
Other Prizes
The McLaughlin and Herson Scholarships and the Tinker Prize
On the basis of faculty nomination, rather than submitted essays, the Prizes Committee recommends to the Department a candidate or candidates for the McLaughlin Scholarship for excellence in composition and the study of English literature during the first three years. The award is made in the fall of the student's senior year. The Herson Scholarship, for outstanding work in English, is awarded to a senior who intends to do graduate work in English, preferably at Yale and preferably in American Literature. The Tinker Prize is designated for the outstanding senior in English.
The Noah Webster Prize
The Noah Webster Prize (for the best essay on some aspect of the history of the English language) is open to graduate students. Consult the DGS for a definition of categories and deadline.
The Field, Porter, and Wallace Prizes
Besides prizes administered by the English Department, the Secretary of the College supervises competition for the Field Prize (for a work in poetry, literature, or religion) and the Porter prize (for a work of scholarship "of general human interest"). Submit at the Secretary's Office, Woodbridge Hall. (The deadline is usually by the beginning of April). Information and applications will be available in LC 106. The Yale Daily News administers the Wallace Prize in creative writing. Check at the Yale Daily News building, 202 York Street, for the deadline date (usually end of March).
The Wrexham Prize and The Steere Prize
The Wrexham Prize ("for the best senior essay in the field of the humanities") is one for which the Prizes Committee makes nomination after reading entries in category H. The Steere Prize, for the senior essay that best exemplifies the advance in scholarship gained by focusing on women or gender or by employing feminist theory, is administered by the Women's Studies office (315 WLH). Submissions should be made in duplicate to Women's Studies, and should include name, address, phone number, and major department. The deadline for the Steere Prize is usually during the last week in April. Check with Women's Studies for more information.
General Instructions and Requirements
Deadlines
Bring your work to Mrs. Shand in LC 109 as soon as possible, but no later than 3:00 pm on Thursday, April 24, 2008, except for categories H-2 and H-3, for which the deadline is no later than 3:00 pm on Thursday, May 1, 2008.
Length and Number of Submissions
You may submit up to six pages of poetry, one piece of prose fiction, one piece of general expository writing, one piece of literary criticism. Juniors and seniors may submit "a body" (3-6 pieces) of published journalism for the Hersey prize. Most students will submit just one entry, unless a nomination is received, and all are urged to perfect their best work through revision; but there is nothing to keep you from competing in all the genres.
Nominations
In addition, any instructor in the English Department may nominate one student's essay (or story or poem) for prize competition for each course taught. (It is thus at least theoretically possible for one student to receive several faculty nominations and to have several pieces in the same genre to submit.) A note stating faculty nomination should be presented to the student, who will bring it, together with the essay, to the assistant in LC 109. Since faculty-nominated pieces must enter the general competition without prejudgment in their favor, a faculty nomination should not be noted on the cover of the essay itself but only on the index card filed separately by the assistant. Seniors in English 490 may submit one essay in addition to their Senior Essay.
Title Page
Your name should not appear on the entry. The title page should give a pseudonym, Yale class (or graduate status), title of the piece, and the course for which it was written, if it was written for a course. Please put the letters ps (for "pseudonym") in parentheses after your pseudonym so that readers can check that the names are indeed pseudonyms before getting started. In the upper-left corner of the title page, write the appropriate category (A through H, as above), not the names of prizes; please take responsibility yourself for seeing that your work is filed in the appropriate category.
Prize Submission Cards
Please print, complete, and separate the Prize Submission Cards (PDF), and submit them with your work. Only one set of cards is required, even if you submit to more than one category. The pseudonym card requires your permanent home street address, so checks can be drawn and letters can be sent to winners. (If you would like to be notified of an award at a P.O. Box, indicate that also, but a street address is still required.) On the alpha card the assistant will record any nomination by an instructor. Such nomination is only for the purpose of permitting the student to submit more than one entry per category. These cards will not be consulted until prizes have been determined, so the judges will not read the nomination note. Only one pseudonym should be used for all entries; however, a new pseudonym should be chosen from year to year.
Submission Quality
Submit clean, legible, dark-enough photocopies or print-outs; entries will not be returned. You will probably wish to revise coursework for the competition, but long pieces, especially those written close to the end of the year, may be submitted as is -- minus instructors' comments.
Senior Submissions
Seniors graduating in 3 1/2 years will be considered for senior prizes the May following their last semester of coursework. An essay by such a student the penultimate semester should be considered junior work to allow for a second submission in competition with other seniors the following May. The exception would be H3, a senior essay as such written during the student's sixth semester, which should be held over for competition the following year. Students graduating in 4 1/2 years should submit in the senior category the May of the actual spring term work or the May following work written in the fall.
Questions Should be Directed to Professor Leslie Brisman
2-0488, leslie.brisman@yale.edu.
