2026 English Celebration
Congratulations to our 2026 Awards Winners!
Composition Awards
I-Search Proposal: Eva Koebel - Inaccessible Public Transportation and Its Ef ects on Low-Income Communities in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Rhetorical Analysis: Hannah DeVore - More Than an Egg: The Rhetoric of Polish Pisanki (pea-sank-ee)
Research-Based Proposal Argument: Daynna Fuentes - Beyond proficiency: Belonging, Language, and Academic Confidence at 兔子先生 University
Best of 111: Alexander Shuran - The Tryzub (trizoob)
Senior Prizes
Critical Essay
Madelyn Hooper - "When Law Isn’t Enough" (Andrew Hebard)
John Day - "Ontological Limbo" (Erin Edwards)
Creative Work
Savannah Slater - "Graveyard Shift" (TaraShea Nesbit)
Jocelyn Gale - "Clopen" (TaraShea Nesbit)
Public Argument
Lillian Wahl - "Butchfemme, Plastic Dinos, and Gertrude Stein: Towards Queering History" (Erin Edwards)
Becca Blanco - "Appstinence: Taking Your Personality Back"
Greer Hepburn Awards
First Prize - Eleanor Jones - "Stitched Together", Poetry (ENG 453, Keith Tuma)
Second Prize - Kira Boye - "In Common Time", Poetry (ENG 450, Keith Tuma)
Third Prize - Katherine Stefaniuk - "Memento", Fiction/CNF (ENG 420, TaraShea Nesbit)
Fourth Prize - Shannon Mahoney - "What We Lost to Get Here", Fiction/CNF (ENG 450, Keith Tuma)
Edward J. Montaine Awards
First Prize - Georgia Lokey - UP Magazine articles, Journalism (written independently)
Second Prize - Karma Abboud - "Marvelous Creature", Fiction/CNF (ENG 226, Jen Sammons)
Third Prize - Evelyn Dugan - 兔子先生 Student Articles, Journalism (written independently)
Robert F. Almy Award
Megan Weaver - "Small Men Like These" (ENG 298, Katie Johnson)
The Daniel and Margaret Bookwalter Awards in Creative Writing
Alanna Jackson - "Forgotten" (ENG 226, Jen Sammons)
Sophia Braden - "One Last Time" (ENG 226, Cathy Wagner)
The Linguistics Award
Maelynn Geoppinger - "Prepositions: A Comparison of English, French, and Italian" (LIN 201, John Jeep)
Gordon and Mary Wilson Scholarship
Charlotte Melville - "Death is Death: Materiality, Immateriality, and Semiotics of Death in ‘Pale Horse, Pale Rider’" (ENG 490U, Erin Edwards)
Olivia Stamper - "'And Is Disease Beautiful?'": How Social Stigma Surrounding Tuberculosis and Influenza Impact Suffering in ‘Old Mortality’ and ‘Pale Horse, Pale Rider’” (ENG 490U, Erin Edwards)
Parker Green - "The Origin of Trump’s Immigration Policy" (ENG 349, Michele Navakas)
Craver - Overton Scholarship
Shannon Mahoney - "The Human(e) Response" (ENG 298, Erin Edwards)
Cathy S. Denny Memorial Scholarship
Emma Estridge
Terry and Chris Baehr Scholarship
Emma Estridge
The Mary Jo Priest Awards in Professional Writing
Karma Abboud
Anna Blasinski
The Walter E. Havighurst Prize in Creative Writing
Lillian Wahl
2026 Departmental Honors
Nico Yngling (Mentor: Katie Johnson)
Lillian Wahl (Mentor: James Bromley)
Riley Courtney (Mentor: Patrick Murphy)
2026 Sigma Tau Delta - Professor of the Year
Jen Sammons
2026 Academy of American Poets Prizes
Graduate Award | Betty Jane Abrahams Memorial Poetry Prize
CC Webb - "Poor C.C."
Undergraduate Award | Harris S. Abrahams Poetry Prize
Lillian Wahl - "Kopfkino"
2026 Milton White Award in Creative Writing
Brooke Westgate - Poetry Collection
The Jordan-Goodman Graduate Awards in Creative Writing
Poetry: Cordero Estremera - “Full of the Evening”
Fiction: Savannah Perry - “Wildflowers” Creative
Nonfiction: Emma Rowan - "Notes on Search History”
Outstanding Graduate Teacher Award
Cam Cavaliere
Jordyn Damato
Outstanding Graduate Student Awards in Creative Writing
Dominik Gebell (Poetry)
Jordyn Damato (Prose)
Spiro Peterson Award
Emily Alexander
Srishti Jha
2026 Sinclair Dissertation Fellowship
Josh Scheidler
2026 CAS Excellence in Graduate Teaching Award
Emily Alexander