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English Department

2023 Writing Awards

2023 English Department Writing Awards

Friday, April 28
12:00 p.m.–2:00 p.m.
The Bianco Room

2023 Competition Winners

Journalism

  • Gia Sparacino, Gerard Cannon Award, 1st Place: “Adjuncts: The Unappreciated, Underpaid, Unseen Academics of American Universities,” “Lesbian Legend Elaine Romagnoli Passes, Queer Spaces Die with Her,” and “Man of The Met: A Starving Artist's Story Told”
  • Mandi Karpo, Sarah Willis Award, 2nd Place: “University Hosts Historical 2022 NYS Gubernatorial Debate” and “Remembering DJ Henry at Third Annual Social Justice Week”
  • Amy Moore, Billie and Curtis Owens Award, 3rd Place: “What Does It Take to Be a Music Journalist with Kim Taylor Bennett”
  • Emma Sylvia, Richard Gill Award, Honorable Mention: “The Cult of J.K. Rowling and the Alt-Right Pipeline”

Writing on Film

  • Carter Haskins, Gerard Cannon Award, 1st Place: “Jeanne Dielman and Visual Pleasure”
  • Lindsey Bourque, Sarah Willis Award, 2nd Place: “I Am Not a Witch: Discussing Witchcraft, Misogyny, and Feminism”
  • Kathleen Caraway, Sarah Willis Award, 3rd Place: “Why the Radio in Cleo 5 to 7?”

Literary Criticism

  • Cailyn Mickelsen, Sarah Willis Award, 1st Place: “Time in the Margin: Queer Temporality in Mrs. Dalloway”
  • Megan Tometich, Gerard Cannon Award, 2nd Place: “Laughter and Oppression in Good Morning, Midnight and Quicksand”
  • Cayla Quinn, Gerard Cannon Award, 2nd Place: “Hotspur and the Death of Honor: Exchanging Masculinities in 1 Henry IV”
  • Elena Sierzchula, Gerard Cannon Award, 3rd Place: “Female Rage and Self-Hatred in Modernist Texts”
  • Janet Gerges, Billie and Curtis Owens Award, Honorable Mention: “Let’s Talk Grammar”
  • Jaeden Pinder, James Rose Award, Honorable Mention: “‘I’ve Never Heard of these People’: Colonizing the Colonizer’s Text in I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem”
  • Amanda Zinni, Richard Gill Award, Honorable Mention: “‘He’s the Victim of His Own Damn Thing’: Connections Between Hostel (2005) and Fairview”

Poetry

  • Jack Niemczyk, David A. Bickimer—Promise of Learnings /Academy of American Poets Prize: “A Successive Issue,” “The Moon’s Phase,” and “Family Meal Pumpkin Apple Bread”
  • Detroit Hamell, Sarah Willis Award, 1st Place: “baby,” “1:24am at Heaven’s Bar,” “Frankie Destroyed These Shoes, I Guess,” “Pepper, the Mannequin” and “Ice Cream Man”
  • Nina Hook, Billie and Curtis Owens Award, 1st Place: “Southwest Storm,” “Playing with Mother,” “Varenna, Italy,” “The South-Side Dock,” and “Yellow Dress”
  • Megan Tometich, James Rose Award, 2nd Place: “Men I Own (Or, In Brief: Boxers)” and “Riding the Bus”
  • Laura Gooch, Gerard Cannon Award, 2nd Place: “the average number of pieces in a broken heart,” “fat never felt pretty,” “blasphemy,” and “EXISTENCE”
  • Felicity Flores-Drew, Sarah Willis Award, 3rd Place: “Billie Holiday Sings a Church Hymn,” “Fourth Wish,” “Cure,” “My Dear Sabrina,” and “The Cowardly Lions, My Girl, and Me”
  • Emily Shafer, Sarah Willis Award, 3rd Place: “The Armor Rouse,” “August,” “cigarette,” and “sunset”
  • Zoe Poulis, Gerard Cannon Award, Honorable Mention: “California Poem,” “a different kind of cold,” “To having your first kiss during an episode of Dance Moms,” “Girlhood,” and “Pretty tears”
  • Katie Romanyshyn, Gerard Cannon Award, Honorable Mention: “To cigarettes,” “dysmorphic,” “have a good one,” “'sweet' potatoes,” and “ode to showers”

Comics and Graphic Novels

Scripts

  • Sam Davis, Richard Gill Award, 1st Place: Rabbit Ears
  • Sarah Kincaid, Gerard Cannon Award, 2nd Place: Amortentia
  • Kaylyn Wan Ting Yew, Gerard Cannon Award, 3rd Place: Birthday Trip
  • Ashvin Kapoor, Richard Gill Award, Honorable Mention: The Ashvin Show Man (The Graphic Novel)
  • Jonathan Thomas Ovadia, Richard Gill Award, Honorable Mention: Juracán

Essays

  • Megan Tometich, Sarah Willis Award, 1st Place: “Are You My Mother? Analysis”
  • Olivia Fisher, Gerard Cannon Award, 2nd Place: “Tomie: An Analysis”
  • Leilani Monserrate, Gerard Cannon Award, 3rd Place: “An Exploration of Race and Racism through Metaphor in American Born Chinese”
  • Laura Gooch, James Rose Award, Honorable Mention: “Fun Home Close Reading,” “Graphic Novels Are Literature, But This Book Is Not,” and “American Born Chinese Close Reading”

Playwriting

  • Cambria Kylinn Martin, Sarah Willis Award, 1st Place: Stranger Grandfather, Stranger Granddaughter
  • Kailey Liddell, Gerard Cannon Award, 2nd Place: Last Supper and Fat Dog It, Joan
  • Charlie Razhanskiy, Gerard Cannon Award, 3rd Place: Beyond the Curtain
  • Maddie McCool, Richard Gill Award, Honorable Mention: Where the Door Leads
  • Veronika Orlovska, Richard Gill Award, Honorable Mention: Off the Rocker

Writing for Film and Television

Feature-Length Screenplays

  • Mary Justin, Gerard Cannon Award, 1st Place: The Great Believers
  • Lexie Tierney, Sarah Willis Award, 2nd Place: Fangirls
  • Eric Ducos, Richard Gill Award, 3rd Place: Life’s a Bitch

Short Film Scripts

  • Oliver Schofield, Gerard Cannon Award, 1st Place: I Have the Key to the Incinerator
  • Lauren Vogel, Sarah Willis Award, 2nd Place: American Girls
  • Joshua Rabin, Gerard Cannon Award, 3rd Place: Shoulda Woulda Coulda

Television Scripts

  • Jalyn Horhn, Sarah Willis Award, 1st Place: “My Mind's a Burning Hell,” Yellowjackets spec episode
  • Charlie Razhanskiy, Sarah Willis Award, 1st Place: “Reunion, Amongst Other Things,” Our Flag Means Death spec episode
  • Ethan McKellar, Gerard Cannon Award, 2nd Place: “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” Sweet Suburban Summers pilot script

Nonfiction

  • Sarah Kincaid, Gerard Cannon Award, 1st Place: “Smoker’s Heart”
  • Gabriella Herrera, Billie and Curtis Owens Award, 2nd Place: “Profile at Essex Street, Facing the Wall”
  • Riley Natalova, James Rose Award, 3rd Place: “7th & A” (Excerpt)
  • Mary Justin, Gerard Cannon Award, Honorable Mention: “A Letter to My Sister”
  • Kendall Alexis Carter, Sarah Willis Award, Honorable Mention: “Like the Light”

Fiction

  • Mary Justin, Billie and Curtis Owens Award, 1st Place: “My Body of Water,” “My Boy and My Mother,” and “The Stripes I Gave My Mother”
  • Zoe Schuman, Sarah Willis Award, 1st Place: “A Place to Put the Pieces Down”
  • Sylvie Morris, Gerard Cannon Award, 2nd Place: “Levaya”
  • Alexandra Muniz, Gerard Cannon Award, 2nd Place: “The Creature”
  • Laura Gooch, Richard Gill Award, 3rd Place: “Portrait of a Family”
  • Nicolina Barone, Richard Gill Award, 3rd Place: Excerpt from A Starless Sky
  • Darby O’Brien, Gerard Cannon Award, Honorable Mention: “A Crash Course in Flying”
  • Mark Vaksman, Gerard Cannon Award, Honorable Mention: “Tunnel Vision”

Linguistic and Rhetorical Analysis

  • Megan Tometich, Sarah Willis Award, 1st Place: “I Amn’t So Sure about Language Anymore: A Literacy Narrative”
  • Faith Gregory, Gerard Cannon Award, 2nd Place: “The Talk of the Harries: Language Used in Harry Styles Stan Twitter”
  • Ethaniel Curcio, Gerard Cannon Award, 3rd Place: “From Page to Stage: Examining Literacy”
  • Kiona Morales, Gerard Cannon Award, Honorable Mention: “Tok Pisin Case Study”
  • Elena Sierzchula, Gerard Cannon Award, Honorable Mention: “Development and Appropriation of Slang”

Kelly Herbert Writing Award

  • Felicity Flores-Drew, “Sweetest Thing”