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2026 Writing Awards

Awards

$25,000 in awards from the Sarah Willis, Billie and Curtis Owens, Richard Gill, Gerard Cannon, and James Rose funds (former English Department faculty) will be given in:

Fiction
Poetry
Nonfiction
Writing for Film and Television
Playwriting
Journalism
Writing on Film
Literary Criticism
Linguistic and Rhetorical Analysis
Comics and Graphic Novels (scripts and essays)

The Academy of American Poets Prize (established at Pace by John Ashbery and David Kermani) is awarded in the Poetry category.

Eligibility

You must be a NYC undergraduate English or Film and Screen Studies (FSS); a minor in Creative Writing, English, Literature, Language and Linguistics, Critical Race and Ethnicity Studies, Classical and Medieval Studies, Translation Studies, or Journalism and Digital Storytelling; an Aphros or Pace Press writer or staff; or an undergraduate from NYC or Pleasantville in any major who has taken (or is taking) a NYC ENG course above ENG 201, a 200 or 300-level LIT course, or any FSS course, taught by a NYC-based professor. Also, you must be enrolled in any semester during the Pace 2025-2026 academic year.

Submissions must be sent to nyenglishawards@gmail.com by 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, April 7, 2026.

View the Writing Awards Submission Criteria (PDF)