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Earn prize money for your writing

The Department of English is offering more than $1,500 in prizes through its annual competitions. Undergraduate and graduate students can apply for the 2023 English Prizes by Friday, March 17, at 4 p.m. 

Undergraduate students are advised that they may receive no more than $100 in prize money without reduction of financial aid, subject to federal and state regulations.

The following prizes are being offered to all Case Western Reserve University undergraduates:

  • For first-year essayists: The Karl Lemmerman Prize for the best essay written by a first-year student.
  • For advanced essayists: The Holden Prize for the best essay by a sophomore, junior or senior student.
  • For poets: 
    • The Finley Foster and Emily Hills Prizes for the best poem or group (three) of poems by an undergraduate student.
    • The Helen B. Sharnoff Prize for the best formal poem or group (three) of formal poems by an undergraduate student. Formal poems are those written in predetermined forms: e.g., abecedarian, cinquain, ghazal, pantoum, sestina, sonnet, terza rima, villanelle, etc.
  • For prose writers:
    • The Edith Garber Krotinger Prize for the best creative writing other than poetry by an undergraduate student.
    • The Eleanor Leuser Award for outstanding writing for or about children by an undergraduate student enrolled in a creative writing course at the university.
  • For women writers:
    • The Emily M. Hills Award for the best poem or essay written by an undergraduate woman in the College of Arts and Sciences.
  • For journalists:
    • The Arnaud Gelb Journalism Awards offer up to $2,000 in prize money and internship funding in three categories:
      • Any nonfiction news or feature story under 500 words (no personal essays)
      • Any nonfiction news or feature story more than 500 words (no personal essays)
      • Any nonfiction news or feature story about sports (any length)

Students may submit only one submission per category. Previously published stories and unpublished classwork are both acceptable. 

The following prize is available to graduate students:

  • The Timothy Calhoun Memorial Prize for Poetry for the best poem or group of poems (three) by a graduate student in the Department of English.

To submit an entry for these competitions, email a Word attachment to sxd290@case.edu. Your name should not appear on the contest entry, but in the body of the email, include your name, your student ID number, local phone number and which entry is for which prize. Submissions can not be entered for multiple prizes.