Enter your written work into a contest for a chance to win prize money

Students are invited to submit their written work for the Department of English’s annual prize competitions. More than $1,500 in prizes will be given out. The deadline to make a submission is Friday, March 15, at 4 p.m.

Several awards are available.

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 Prize 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 pre-determined 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 Awardfor 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 Journalism Awards for journalism and public writing:

  • 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)

Only one submission per student per category can be made. Previously published stories and unpublished classwork are both acceptable. These awards are open to all current CWRU undergraduate students.

For graduate students

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

Submission criteria

Submit the entry as an email Word attachment to sxd290@case.edu. Your name should not appear on the contest entry. In the body of the email, include your name, student ID number and local phone number, and state clearly which entry is for which prize. 

Submissions can not be duplicated from one prize to another. 

Students may receive no more than $100 in prize money without reduction of financial aid, subject to federal and state regulations.