Prizes Each spring, the English Department awards prizes in both creative writing and critical fields.

English Department Creative Writing Prizes for Undergraduates

• *Sidney Cox Memorial Prize:  see below
• Academy of American Poets Prize:
• • The Academy of American Poets Prize is offered for the best poem or group of poems submitted to the English/Creative Writing Department.
• Jacobson-Laing Award in Poetry:
• • The Alexander Laing Memorial Writing Award will be given to an undergraduate for the "best manuscript of original poems."
• Lockwood Prize:
• • Competition for the Lockwood Prize is open to undergraduates classified as Junior. Any form of writing except plays may be submitted. A group of short poems may be considered as one manuscript.
• Ralston Prize:
  • The Thomas Henry Ralston VI English 80 Prize is for the most outstanding student in English 80.
• Grimes Prize:
• • Competition for the Grimes Prize is open to undergraduates classified as Senior. Any form of writing except plays may be submitted. A group of short poems may be considered as one manuscript.
• The William C. Spengemann Award in Writing:
• • The William C. Spengemann Award in Writing is given for a work of prose or poetry distinguished by its formal precision, as well as its original, innovative, or iconoclastic approach to its subject matter.
• The Mecklin Prize:
  • The Mecklin Prize is for the best student writing in creative nonfiction or journalism. 
• The Erskine Caldwell Prize:
• • The Erskine Caldwell prize is awarded to students whose written work in the short story is most outstanding.        

The deadline for submissions is Monday, April 8, 2012 at 4pm.  

Electronic copies only.  Please use a cover sheet to indicate the prizes for which you would like your work considered.

Email your submission to: English.Department@dartmouth.edu  The prizes are decided by an outside judge with the exception of the Cox prize and the Ralston Prize, which are awarded by the Creative Writing faculty.

Fiction and creative nonfiction submissions are limited to one short story, or one nonfiction piece, or one chapter of a book length manuscript not to exceed 20 double-space typewritten pages along with a one-page synopsis of the book. Professor Hebert, director of Creative Writing, will be happy to answer any questions.

The Awards Ceremony (and reading by both the winners and this year’s judge, John Jeremiah Sullivan) is scheduled for Thursday, May 9, 2013, at 4:00 p.m. in the Sanborn Library, Sanborn House. There will be a reception immediately after the ceremony. Any Dartmouth undergraduates may submit a manuscript.

*The Sidney Cox Memorial Prize:
The Sidney Cox Memorial Prize is offered annually for "that piece of undergraduate writing which most nearly meets those high standards of originality and integrity which Sidney Cox set for himself and for his students in his teaching and in his book, "Indirections for Those Who Want to Write." It is the only Creative Writing prize not included in the Awards Ceremony.  It is also the only Creative Writing prize that does not require students to submit entries.  Instead, it is decided by the Creative Writing faculty and awarded on Class Day at the English Department reception for senior majors and minors and their families.

English Department Critical Prizes

These prizes are by faculty nomination, voted on by the entire faculty at the end of the academic year.

• The Hochman Prize
• • This prize is awarded yearly to a graduating senior who majored in English and who demonstrated by his or her course work both academic excellence and particular dedication to the field of American literature.
• The Feinstein Prize
• • This prize is awarded to the student in the English Honors Program whose honors thesis and overall work demonstrate the most effective exploration of feelings through language.
• The Perkins Prize
• • This prize is awarded to that undergraduate Dartmouth student who shall show the most promise in Greek, or in Latin, or in English literature.