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The English Department sponsors annual writing contests that are open to all Clark undergraduate students, including those enrolled in the School of Professional Studies. All work must be completely original.

CREATIVE WRITING CONTESTS DUE - 2/28/26 | LEROY ALLSTON AMES CONTEST DUE - 3/31/26

How to Enter Your Work

    1.  All submissions must be the student’s original work. Because all contest judging is done anonymously, we cannot accept previously published entries identifying the author. All entries must be unsigned.

    2. To submit to each of the four writing contests, fill out the corresponding Qualtrics form and upload your unsigned entry by the posted deadline. 
    3. Missing information will disqualify your entry.
    4. The English Department may present or publish winning entries.
    5. Contest winners will be invited to present their winning entries at ClarkFEST.
    6. If, in the opinion of the judges, none of the entries in a particular category is deserving of an award, none shall be given.

Annual Contests

Loring Holmes and Ruth Dodd Drama Contest

One entry per student. Entries can be a one-act play or a section of a longer play; minimum of 10 pages, not to exceed 25 pages. Playwriting format required. Please contact Professor Gino DiIorio for questions about standard playwriting format.

Prentiss Cheney Hoyt Poetry Contest

The number of submissions per student is limited to three (3) poems.

Betty ’79 and Stanley Sultan Short Story Contest

The number of submissions per student is limited to one story, not to exceed 5,000 words.

Leroy Allston Ames Essay Contest

For the best essay on any aspect of 19th-century England — literature, history, philosophy, art, or science.

Students may submit an essay written for a course.

The number of submissions per student is limited to one essay.

Current Winners

1st Place – Isabella Simoes ’27 for “what is literacy under 30%”

2nd Place – Hannah Leamon ’29 for “Kneeler”

3rd Place – Gwyneth Owen ’26 for “twenty one in my childhood bedroom“

1st Place – Oliver Briskin ’27 for “Restoration”

2nd Place – Emme Salisbury ’28 for “Oversaturation”

3rd Place – Rosa Newshore ’26 for “Generation 24“

1st Place – Kaitlyn McCall ’28 for “Forever Hold Your Peace”

2nd Place – Silas Schwartz ’26 for “Grass”

3rd Place – Gwenne Balcius ’26 for “Maria Omerta“

Previous Winners

2025

1st Place – Isabella Simoes ’27 for “have mercy”

2nd Place – Reuben Glassenberg ’26 for “An Epitaph for the Last Great Jawbone”

3rd Place – Ian Cruz ’25 for “TKO/Lambs”

3rd Place – Noah Hart ’27 for “Phosphorous”

3rd Place – Aaron Femia ’27 for “(I K)new“

1st Place – Kathrine Brooke Galvinhill ’25 for “The Train”

2nd Place – Silas Schwartz ’26 for “The Stream Sifter”

3rd Place – Sophia Lindstrom ’26 for “Jupiter and the 3D-Printed Raincoat“

1st Place – Allison Rinehart ’25 for “The ‘Just Right’ Gentleman”

2nd Place – April Chronowski ’25 for “Convenience”

3rd Place – De’Angelo Blair ’27 for “We The People”

 

 

1st Place – Silas Schwartz ’26 for ““Domestic Others: The Displacement of Dehumanization in the British Empire at the End of the 19th Century”

2nd Place – Maddy Gaffin ’27 for  “War: A Gateway to Glory”

3rd Place – Jenn Milza ’27 for “The Blurring of Masculine and Feminine Roles in ‘His Heart’s Desire’“

2024

1st Place – Silas Schwartz ’26 for “Transmission:”

2nd Place – Sabine Gordon ’26 for “Ceramic Mother”

3rd Place – Ian Cruz ’25 for “The Birds Shall Return”

Honorable Mention -Ursula Zia ’24 for “Bird Braid”

Honorable Mention -Ian Cruz ’25 for “tomatoes“

Honorable Mention -Isabella Simoes ’27 for “touch tank“

1st Place – Silas Schwartz ’26 for “The Deer in the Lake”

2nd Place –Cassie Mayer ’24 for “This Could be Us”

3rd Place – Sophia Friedmann ‘24 for “Takeoff”

1st Place – Gwenne Catherine Balcius ’26 for The Final Day of Doug Stevens

2nd Place – Nat Solomon ’24 for RevelARTsionary

3rd Place – Joseph Andaloro ’25 for Closing Time

2023

1st Place – Kelsey Heyel ’23 for “She”

2nd Place – Jesse Lowe ’24 for “I Hope I Last”

3rd Place – Kaleigh Gibbons ’24 for “Shelves”

Honorable Mention – Annelisse Lynch ’23 for “Just Hair”

Honorable Mention – Neomi Efrat ’26 for “Seated“

1st Place – Kate Roller ’25 for “Family Dinner”

2nd Place – Liam Wang ’25 for “Night Walking”

3rd Place – Katherine Noroian ‘26 for “Awakening”

1st Place – Aanandita Bali ’23 for It’s Mars Time Baby

2nd Place – Gwenne Balcius ’26 for Shake On It

3rd Place – Honey Snyder ’24 for Dreamballs

1st Place – Christina Rose Walcott ’23 for “Whiteness is Actually the Evil in Mizora”

2nd Place – Jordan Holley ’23 for “A Eugenicist’s Utopia: Selective Reproduction and Intolerance of the “Other” in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland”

3rd Place – Robin Bozik ’24 for “Bleak Midwinter – The Gothic in Armadale”

Honorable Mention – Leilani Brown ’25 for “Lord Alfred Douglas’ ‘Two Loves’: Love, Shame, & Names”

2022

1st Place Mallory Trainor ’22 for “I Dream in Time Lapse”

2nd Place Jesse Lowe’24 for “( )”(Parentheses)

3rd Place Ursula Zia’24 for “Becoming an Air Plant“

1st Place Juliana Hall 24 for “The Disappearance of Persephone Reid”

2nd Place Olivia Wilde 23 for “Backyard Eulogy”

3rd Place Jesse Lowe 24 for “I Have Not Drowned“

1st Place Dylan Parra 22 for The Trees Don’t Talk Anymore

2nd Place Kelsey Heyel 23 for Funeralia

3rd Place Luke Pound 22 for Flying Through Windows

2021

1st Place: Kylee Rutkiewicz ’21 for “Brother”

2nd Place: Jacob Lonon ’22 for “The thought of you intrudes upon my sphere”

3rd Place: Mahi Taban ’21 for “phantom pains”

1st Place: Robin Bozik ’24 for “Me, Myself, and The Body”

2nd Place: Tyler Hempel ’22 for “A Way Home”

3rd Place: Kira Houston’23 for “The Face Painter”

1st Place: Brett Iarrobino ’21 for New, New Normal

2nd Place: Jeremy Francoeur ’22 for Absolute Zero

3rd Place Tie: Dylan Parra ’22 for Giving up the Dream

3rd Place Tie: Tim Lucey ’22 for Ouroboros

2020

1st Place: Hannah Ortiz ’23 for “Ode to Moses”

2nd Place: Ruth Fuller ’20 for “Panic”

3rd Place: Danielle Black ’21 for “Truths Split”

1st Place: Alexis Dinkins ’20 for “It Will Grow Here”

2nd Place: Jerinna Solages ’22 for “And Free They Shall Be”

3rd Place: Rachel Lloyd ’20 for “Wordlessly”

1st Place: Maria Connors ’20 for Nothing Out of the Extra-Ordinary

2nd Place: Emily Buza ’20 for excerpts from Kitten

3rd Place: Riley Kay Starnhagen ’20 for She Was the Sun

Honorable Mention: Luke Pound ’22 for excerpts from Elements

1st Place : Mahi Taban ’21 for “Sexual Identity, Foreignness, and the Gothic Vampire: The Racialization of Homosexuality in ‘Carmilla’”

2nd Place: Davina Tomlin ’20 for “Men and Tools in ‘Ode to a Nightingale’”

2019

1st: Alyssa Pelletier ’19 – “Thursday Night Dinner”

2nd: Taylor Murphy ’22 – “After the Summer of Dusk”

3rd: Caitlin Leggett ’22 – “Today’s Special”

1st: Manal Ahmed ’21 – “Untitled”

2nd: Mahi taban ’21 – “Like Unto the Wind”

3rd: Carolyn Strauss ’19 – “The Old Apartment”

1st: Brett Iarrobino ’21 – Aw, Nuts!

2nd: Toni Armstrong ’19 – Life Cycles

3rd: Zoe DiPinto ’20 – “The Revolting Crotch” & Riley Kay Sternhagen ’20 – The List

2018

1st: Naomi Shmueli ’18 — “Mountain Mama”

2nd: Jennifer Vernick ’18 — “After the Fourth Hospital Stay”

3rd: Mahi Taban ’21 — “Letter to Khyber”

3rd: Jane Thomas ’21 — “Most Likely to Succeed”

1st: Samuel Marlinga ’18 — “I”

2nd: Henry Lynch ’18 — “Everyone Came But No One Was There”

3rd: Jonathan Krauss ’20 — “Tiny Fish”

Honorable Mention: Mal Sklar ’18 — “Do Roombas Dream of Electric Sheep?”

1st: Toni Armstrong ’19 — When

2nd: Shawn McGarry ’19 — Act 1, Scene 2 (Dan and Beatrice… )

3rd: Lukas Pomerville ’21 — Bastille Café

2017

1st:  Cassidy To ’17 — “I AM”

2nd: Maria Connors ’20 — “Tidal Eyes”

3rd:  Jessica Hoops ’18 — “Revelation”

3rd:  Genevieve Mahoney ’17 — “The Cat Called Kitty”

1st:  Chukwuma Egbuzie ’19 — “9DIGITS”

2nd:  Rachel Lloyd ’20 — “Click!”

3rd:  Davina Tomlin ’20 — “Cassandra”

1st:  Laura Barker ’17 — 2016

2nd:  Toni Armstrong ’19 — Forgetting Lee Grant

3rd:  Chloe Anderson ’17 — Hangover

3rd:  Emily Denny ’17 — The Filthy People

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