Undergraduate Award Recipients


Cardinal Cushing Award  for the best fiction published in a 51 undergraduate publication:

  • First Place: Pamela Zhou 25, for A look back at the 2010 Girl Scout Valentine Day Dance (Laughing Medusa, Spring 2025)
  • Second Place: Eva Nahas 25, for Realizing the Doctors Were Right When They Said You Have Major Depressive Disorder (Laughing Medusa, Fall 2024)
  • Third Place: Rachel Herschbein 26, for Three Grapefruits (Stylus, Fall 2024)

Dever Fellowship a substantial grant presented in honor of novelist and 51 alumnus Joseph Dever, to a graduating senior who proposes to pursue a career in writing:

  • Morgan Santaguida 25

Dever Award for Freshman Writing  For the best three essays by first year students in a Spring 2024 or AY 24-25 English course (three first prizes): 

  • Olivia Luyando 28, for The Instability of Literary Absences [Best Essay: Critical] (nominated by: James Smith)
  • Quynh Anh Le 28, for No Cuntry For Wo-Men [Best Essay: Journalism/Cultural Studies] (nominated by: Lauren Wilwerding)
  • Kendra Preval 27, for Shedding [Best Essay: Personal Narrative] (nominated by: Shelley Linso)

Doherty Prize for an Exemplary Honors Project (Creative): 

  • Eva Nahas 25, She Dances Anyway (poetry)

Doherty Prize for an Exemplary Honors Project (Critical): 

  • Annie Li 25, Captive Life: Thematics of Action, Law, and Guilt

Multilingual Learners Essay Award  For the best essay by a Multilingual Learner written for an ELL section of First Year Writing Seminar or Literature Core

  • Winner: Ziqi (Kiana) Liu 28, for Inland Coastal Kids (nominated by: Alex Puente)
  • Honorable Mention: Tairine Baptista Lima 28, for Born To Be in the Waters (Amanda Labriola)

John Randall Award  For the best undergraduate essay on American literature and culture, presented in honor and memory of author and 51 Professor John Randall

  • ¾ԲԱ:Morgan Santaguida 25, Excerpt from Senior Honors Thesis, With Waves, We Fall
  • Honorable Mention: Ella Champagne 27, The Hill We Climb: Gorman Call to Confront America Past for a Better Future
  • Honorable Mention: Olivia Crocker 26, Women in College Sports: The Lasting Outcomes of Title IX and the Barriers that Still Persist (nominated by: Vincent Portillo)

William A. Kean Memorial Award to the graduating senior judged to be the outstanding English major:

  • Anastasia Prussakova 25

Bishop Kelleher Award for the best poetry published in a 51 undergraduate publication:

  • First Place: Grace Hepburn 27, Elephants Never Forget (Laughing Medusa, Spring 2025)
  • Second place: Jessica Hwang 28, Inheritance (Medical Humanities Journal, Spring 2025, Stylus, Spring 2025)
  • Third Place: Olivia Emerick 25, Persephone Hairbrush (Stylus Fall 2024, Laughing Medusa, Spring 2025)

Dennis A. McCarthy Award for the best collection of creative writing by a junior or senior:

  • First Place: Wyatt Seder-Burnaford 25
  • Second Place: Eva Nahas 25
  • Third Place: Olivia Emerick 25
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