Program in Creative Writing Honors and Awards

The Margaret C. Annan Memorial Prize

Deadline: April 15, 5:00 pm   Eligibility: Third-year students in the College

Fiction, Poetry, Nonfiction Prizes: $1000 each

Established in Ms. Annan's memory by her students, the prize supports three summer writing projects—one each in the genres of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction—and is awarded to third-years / rising fourth-years in recognition of excellence in creative writing and in support of a summer writing project.

Guidelines: Submit a portfolio of approximately 10 double-spaced pages and indicate the genre in your submission. Entry is limited to one genre per student. Email your submissions to ddooley@uchicago.edu. If applying for more than one prize, submit each entry in a separate email. The subject line should contain the name of the prize you are applying for. Within the body of your email, please include: your full name, the name of the prize you are applying for, the title of your entry, your year in the College (i.e., third- or fourth-year), your major, and your University of Chicago email address. Attach an anonymized PDF of your writing sample with the author’s name omitted from all pages.

The David Blair McLaughlin Prizes

Deadline: April 15, 5:00 pm   Eligibility: Fourth-year students in the College

First Prize: $300; Second Prize: $150

Awarded for essays written by students in the graduating class who demonstrate special skill and sense of form in the writing of English prose.

Guidelines: Essays should not exceed 25 pages (double-spaced). Entry limited to one essay per student. Email your submissions to ddooley@uchicago.edu. If applying for more than one prize, submit each entry in a separate email. The subject line should contain the name of the prize you are applying for. Within the body of your email, please include: your full name, the name of the prize you are applying for, the title of your entry, your year in the college (i.e., third- or fourth-year), your major, and your University of Chicago email address. Attach an anonymized PDF of your writing sample with the author’s name omitted from all pages.

The Olga and Paul Menn Foundation Prizes

Deadline: April 15, 5:00 pm   Eligibility: Fourth-year students in the College

First Prize: $1000; Second Prize: $500

Awarded for original short stories or novel extracts written by students in the graduating class.

Guidelines: Novel extracts should include an explanatory preface and should not exceed 25 pages (double-spaced). Entry limited to one short story or novel extract per student. Email your submissions to ddooley@uchicago.edu. If applying for more than one prize, submit each entry in a separate email. The subject line should contain the name of the prize you are applying for. Within the body of your email, please include: your full name, the name of the prize you are applying for, the title of your entry, your year in the college (i.e., third- or fourth-year), your major, and your University of Chicago email address. Attach an anonymized PDF of your writing sample with the author’s name omitted from all pages.

The John Billings Fiske Poetry Prize

Deadline: April 15, 5:00 pm   Eligibility: Fourth-year students in the College

Prize: $500

Awarded for the best original poem or cycle of poems by a student in the graduating class.

Guidelines: Entry limited to a group of six poems, or one poem cycle, per student. Email your submissions to ddooley@uchicago.edu. If applying for more than one prize, submit each entry in a separate email. The subject line should contain the name of the prize you are applying for. Within the body of your email, please include: your full name, the name of the prize you are applying for, the title of your entry, your year in the college (i.e., third- or fourth-year), your major, and your University of Chicago email address. Attach an anonymized PDF of your writing sample with the author’s name omitted from all pages.

This year's awards will be judged by writers Chris Dennis (nonfiction), A. Kendra Greene (multi-genre), Kisha Lewellyn Schlegel (fiction), and Claire Schwartz (poetry). 

Chris Dennis is the author of the story collection Here Is What You Do. His stories and essays have appeared in The Paris Review, Granta, Playgirl, McSweeney's, Astra, Lit Hub, Guernica and Best American Essays 2023. He is the recipient of an NEA Fellowship, the Krause Essay Prize, and a New York Times Sidney Award for long-form journalism. A graduate and fellow of the Writing program at Washington University in St. Louis, he currently lives in southern Illinois where he manages a recovery and overdose prevention program at a rural health department.  

A. Kendra Greene is the author, illustrator, and audiobook reader of The Museum of Whales You Will Never See, a book about Iceland first published by Penguin, now translated into German and French. She became an essayist during a Fulbright grant in South Korea, finished her MFA at the University of Iowa, then convinced the Dallas Museum of Art they needed a Writer in Residence. She went on to be a teaching artist with Writers in the Neighborhoods and Schools, Associate Editor at The Southwest Review, and Visiting Professor at UTD, UNC, and the University of Iceland. With essays in publications from Atlas Obscura to Zyzzyva--including The Guardian, Wall Street Journal, and Freeman’s--her work has also been presented at the Smithsonian, exhibited at The Reading Room, and collected as far away as Qatar. It has been supported by fellowships from Yaddo, MacDowell, and Harvard’s Library Innovation Lab. When you’re lucky, you can find it in the White Rock Zine Machine, for 25 cents a pop. 

Kisha Lewellyn Schlegel is the author of Fear Icons, winner of the inaugural Gournay Prize from The Ohio State University Press. She has published prose in Shirley Magazine, Tin House, The Kenyon Review, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of the Richard J. Margolis Award for social justice reporting and many grants and fellowships. A graduate of the University of Montana's Environmental Studies Program and the University of Iowa’s Nonfiction Writing Program, she is an Associate Professor of English at Whitman College.

Claire Schwartz is the author of the poetry collection Civil Service (Graywolf Press, 2022). Her writing has appeared in The Believer, Granta, The Nation, The New Yorker online, Poetry Magazine, Virginia Quarterly Review, and elsewhere. With Kaveh Akbar and Sarah Kay, she wrote a column for the Paris Review called “Poetry RX.” The recipient of a 2022 Whiting Award for Poetry and a Pushcart Prize, Claire received her PhD in African American Studies, American Studies, and Women's, Gender & Sexuality Studies from Yale. She is the culture editor of Jewish Currents.

Les River Fellowship for Young Novelists

Deadline: No application. Candidates will be nominated by faculty each Spring.

Eligibility: College fourth-year students and/or College students in the graduating class

The Les River Fellowship for Young Novelists was established by Dorothy River in 2016 in honor and memory of her husband, W. Leslie River, Ph.B.’25. One Les River Fellowship of $5,000 will be awarded annually to a writer of fiction completing a BA project in Creative Writing, to support the development of a work of fiction towards publication. The expectation is that the Fellowship will enable uninterrupted work or travel for research purposes during the summer after graduation.
 

Elsie Filippi Memorial Prize in Poetry 

Deadline: No application. Candidates will be nominated by faculty each Spring.

Eligibility: College fourth-year students and/or College students in the graduating class 

Presented to a student in the graduating class in the College who shows distinction in poetic composition.

Can I submit something that has already been published elsewhere?

Yes! You may even choose to specify in your application where the piece has already appeared.

The prose piece I am submitting is under the page limit. Should I submit another piece?

You may submit more than one piece to comprise your portfolio, but we recommend that you only do so if you see both pieces cohering in some way or complementing each other to represent your work. If you have one great piece, you should feel free to submit it alone—even if it is under the page limit.

When will I hear back about my submission?

For prizes with an April 15 deadline, winners will be notified in May. For prizes with event-related deadlines, winners will be notified in advance of the event.

I’m not a Creative Writing major or minor. Can I still apply?

Yes! You will want to pay close attention to the eligibility requirements, but students with other majors and minors are welcome to apply.