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English Department

2025 Writing Awards

Writing Awards Ceremony

Followed by an open reading coordinated by Aphros literary magazine.

$25,000 in awards including the NYC English Department Willis, Owens, Gill, Cannon, Rose Writing Awards, and the Academy of American Poets.

Refreshments will be served and all are welcome!

Monday, April 28
12:00 p.m.–2:00 p.m.
Bianco Room, 15 Beekman

Sarah Willis Award, Richard Gill Award, Gerard Cannon Award, James Rose Award, Billie and Curtis Owens Award, and The David A. Bickimer-Promise of Learnings/Academy of American Poets Prize

The Sarah Willis, Billie and Curtis Owens, Richard Gill, Gerard Cannon, and James Rose memorial funds, named in honor of distinguished English Department faculty, and the David A. Bickimer-Promise of Learnings/Academy of American Poets Prize.

Playwriting

  • Sabrina Angulo, Gerard Cannon Award, 1st Place: “Fish Heaven”
  • Chelsea Lowery, Gerard Cannon Award, 2nd Place: “Motocrossed”
  • Alice Tinari, Billie and Curtis Owens Award, 3rd Place: “Hancocks”
  • Reid Ivanoff, Billie and Curtis Owens Award, Honorable Mention: “Boys in Suits: A Wicked Problem Play”
  • Maya Jamann, Gerard Cannon Award, Honorable Mention: “Growing Time”

Literary Criticism

Research Essays

  • Cailyn Mickelsen, Gerard Cannon Award, 1st Place: Excerpt from “’Unhinged Richard’: The Unman in Shakespeare’s Richard II”
  • Lindsay Paul, Sarah Willis Award, 2nd Place: “Recovered Networks: Anaïs Nin, the Gemor Press, and Feminist Modernist Publishing in New York City” (for The Ground Beneath Our Feet Project)
  • Emilia Gillen, Richard Gill Award, 3rd Place: “Beyond the Binary: Lady Macbeth’s Exploration of Gender in Shakespeare’s Macbeth”

Close Textual Encounters

  • El Aparicio, Sarah Willis Award, 1st Place: “The Gangulis and I”
  • Lauren Male, Gerard Cannon Award, 2nd Place: “Reading Behind the Pattern: A Literary Analysis of ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’”
  • Molly Dunne, Richard Gill Award, 3rd Place: “’Such a lot of different Annes’: Paradoxical Feminism in L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables”

Nonfiction

  • Ishika Naik, Gerard Cannon Award, 1st Place: “Spring Lane”
  • Molly Dunne, Billie and Curtis Owens Award, 2nd Place: “01:27”
  • Sheyla Alonzo, James Rose Award, 3rd Place: “Vintage Vios Computer”
  • Karter Fahey, Richard Gill Award, Honorable Mention: “Not a Choice, But a Truth”
  • Reid Ivanoff, Gerard Cannon Award, Honorable Mention: “For Our Teachers: Perspectives on Embracing a Community-Oriented, Hands-On Approach to Environmental Education”

Journalism

  • Savannah Ford, Gerard Cannon Award, 1st Place: “In Defense of All Things Bulky and Holdable: The Rolleiflex TLR 3.5”
  • Makiyah Hicks, Gerard Cannon Award, 2nd Place: “Texture Talk”
  • Maria Mendoza, Billie and Curtis Owens Award, 3rd Place: “This Is How We Live: Adjunct Professors and the Burden of Academia”
  • Aidann Gia Bacolodan, Sarah Willis Award, Honorable Mention: “Dim Lights, Deep Flavors: The Unassuming Charm of Gnocco”

Linguistic and Rhetorical Analysis

  • Madeleine Yu-Phelps, Sarah Willis Award, 1st Place: “Non-Binary Thoughts on Binary Language”
  • Emily Kangal, Gerard Cannon Award, 2nd Place: “Pedagogy within Learning Communities”
  • Grace Jones, Gerard Cannon Award, 3rd Place: “Discourse in the Kpop Community: Stan Twitter Edition”
  • Charlie Razhanskiy, James Rose Award, Honorable Mention: “The Genre of ‘Babygirlifying’ Men on X”

Comics and Graphic Novels

Scripts

  • Alec Conwell, Richard Gill Award, 1st Place: “The Hanged Man”
  • Samuel Stein, Gerard Cannon Award, 2nd Place: “An Adult Comic”
  • Joey Heaton, Billie and Curtis Owens Award, 3rd Place: “Táqmah,” “Everdusk Origins”
  • Charlie Razhanskiy, Gerard Cannon Award, Honorable Mention: “Aikiro Desires”

Essays

  • Samuel Stein, Gerard Cannon Award, 1st Place: “Palestine and the Literature of Comic Journalism”
  • Alec Conwell, Gerard Cannon Award, 2nd Place: “Brief Lives: On Mortality and Change”
  • Charlie Razhanskiy, Billie and Curtis Owens Award, 3rd Place: “The Roles Our Childhood Relationships Predispose Us To: A Psychoanalysis of Charles Xavier in Uncanny X-Men #309”
  • Cori Magsby, Sarah Willis Award, Honorable Mention: “Literary Analysis of New Kid by Jerry Craft”

Writing on Film

  • Sam Weisz, Sarah Willis Award, 1st Place: “Waltz with Bashir: Examining Indexicality in Animated Documentary”
  • Emma Rose Jacobson, Gerard Cannon Award, 2nd Place: “In Pursuit of Something Else: Trainspotting and Requiem for a Dream”
  • Cailyn Mickelsen, Richard Gill Award, 3rd Place: “Women’s Words and Silences in Omkara and Othello”
  • Madeleine Yu-Phelps, Richard Gill Award, 3rd Place: “Writing Father Figures: Everything, Everywhere All At Once and Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahani Critique”

Writing for the Screen

  • Brenna Connolly, Gerard Cannon Award, 1st Place: “Seventeen, Male”
  • Samuel Stein, Sarah Willis Award, 2nd Place: “Dismythia”
  • Richard Eldredge, Billie and Curtis Owens Award, 3rd Place: “The Waltz”
  • Constantinos Lekas, Gerard Cannon Award, Honorable Mention: “Muscle Memory”
  • Emma Sophie Young, Gerard Cannon Award, Honorable Mention: “The Roster: A Dating App Disaster”

Fiction

  • Wendy Manzo, Gerard Cannon Award, 1st Place: “Trapped,” “Voice in the Wind”
  • Emma Rose Jacobson, Sarah Willis Award, 1st Place: “Obituaries”
  • Riley Natalova, Sarah Willis Award, 2nd Place: “God Save the Queen” and “Hypoxia”
  • Elizabeth Johnston, Gerard Cannon Award, 2nd Place: “Crawfish Heaven”
  • Velvette Hackbarth Palacios, Sarah Willis Award, 3rd Place: “Love’s Such an Old-Fashioned Word”
  • Sarah Kincaid, Richard Gill Award, 3rd Place: “Girl Power”
  • Cori Magsby, Richard Gill Award, Honorable Mention: “Through the Eyes of Justice”
  • Lindsay Paul, Richard Gill Award, Honorable Mention: “Breac Gránna”

Poetry

  • Savannah Ford, David A. Bickimer-Promise of Learnings /Academy of American Poets Prize: “file edit view insert format tools”
  • Reid Ivanoff, Sarah Willis Award, 1st Place: “The Finch,” “A Reminder, Pt. 2,” “Dedicated to Dogs,” “Crows,” “Bezel”
  • Sarah Kincaid, Gerard Cannon Award, 1st Place: “Lady Luck,” “Passenger Seat,” “A Commute,” “In Memoriam”
  • Lexie Tierney, Gerard Cannon Award, 2nd Place: “Ceiling,” “The 6 to Brooklyn Bridge,” “Ode to the End,” “February 28, 2024,” “Dream State”
  • Cori Magsby, James Rose Award, 2nd Place: “Sweetness is all over the world,” “After Hours (Aubade Poem),” “Marble Statuette of Aphrodite, 3rd-2nd Century BCE, Greek,” “Tyrannical Range,” “This”
  • Alice Tinari, Gerard Cannon Award, 3rd Place: “What To Do When You’re Ugly But Have Good Chemistry,” “The Greatest Binge,” “Are You Mad You Look Like Your Father?”
  • Sheyla Alonzo, Gerard Cannon Award, 3rd Place: “I remember,” “Anhelo”
  • Josh Ilano, James Rose Award, Honorable Mention: “The Angerman”
  • Anna Dziem Tran, James Rose Award, Honorable Mention: “Con có nhớ Mẹ không?”

2025 Kelly Herbert Writing Award

Presented by Kelly Herbert and Jimmy Luckman, Director of the LGBTQA+ Center
Sam Singh Hauser, “Me, My Cousin & Life, Part 1”

2025 Kelly Herbert Writing Award: Honorary Mention

Polina Makarova, “Not My Silence”

2025 English Faculty Excellence in Teaching Awards

Presented by English Department Co-Chairs Stephanie Hsu and Sid Ray

  • The Gilbert Rubenstein Excellence in Teaching Award (2025): Mark Ameen Johnson
  • The Tom Henthorne Excellence in Teaching Award (2025): Meaghan Brewer

Film and Screen Studies and English Major Graduates and Award Winners

2024–2025 Amelia Gould Creative Arts Assistantship Award

Janet Gerges

2025 Dyson College/English Department Awards

  • Scholastic Excellence Award (2025): Cailyn Mickelsen
  • Community Service Award (2025): Zora Honor Thomas
  • Creative Excellence Award (2025): Janet Gerges
  • American Studies Award (2025): Nathan Lanum