March 28, 2022
The Creative Writing Program is pleased to announce this year’s winners. For more details, including the judges’ comments on the winning work, click here.
The Peregrine Prize from the Academy of American Poets
Awarded to the best original poetry by a graduate student
Contest judge: Rachel Zolf
Winner: Knar Gavin
Honorable Mention: Michael Martin Shea
The College Alumni Society Poetry Prize
Awarded to the best original poetry by an undergraduate student
Contest judge: Rachel Zolf
Winner: Pamela de la Cruz
Second Place: Sofia Sears
Third Place: Peyton Toups
Honorable mention: Jessica Bao, Husnaa Hashim, Quinn Gruber
The Phi Kappa Sigma Fiction Prize
Awarded to the best original short story by an undergraduate student
Contest judge: Weike Wang
Winner: Sofia Sears, “Roadkill”
Second Place: Emma Blum, “The Beach House”
Third Place: Andrew Basile, “CORRECTION”
Honorable Mention: Yueling Xu, “Wonderland”
The Judy Lee Award for Dramatic Writing
Awarded to a graduate or undergraduate student for the best script (stage, screen, television, or radio)
Contest judge: Brooke O’Harra
Winner: Sarah Potts, Arcadia
Honorable Mention: Rachel Swym and Jamie Cahill, LYRE, A Semi-Satirical, Fictional “True Crime” Podcast
The Lilian and Benjamin Levy Award
Awarded to the best review by an undergraduate student of a current play, film, music release, book, or performance
Contest judge: Anthony DeCurtis
Winner: Matt Shadbolt, “In Praise of EastEnders”
Second Place: Gabriella Raffetto, “Behind the Backlash of Lil Nas X’s ‘Montero’ Music Video”
Third Place: Beatrice Karp, “‘Simple’ Cinematography: A Dramatic 12 Angry Men”
The Gibson Peacock Prize for Creative Nonfiction
Awarded to the best creative nonfiction piece by an undergraduate student
Contest judge: Ahmad Almallah
Winner: Sofia Sears, “The Night Of”
Second Place: Gemma Hong, “Taemong”
Third Place: May Hathaway, “Mother Tongue”
The Parker Prize for Journalistic Writing
Awarded to the best newspaper or magazine article, feature story, exposé or other piece of investigative journalism by an undergraduate student
Contest judge: Lise Funderburg
Winner: Alan Jinich, “‘You never get that smell off your clothes.’”
Second Place: Pamela De La Cruz, “Sheltering Hope at a Violent Border for Migrants”
Third Place: Sophia DeGrands, “Higher Thinking”