Guidelines for Submission
All currently matriculated QC undergrads, as well as those undergrads who finished in December 2020 but are graduating in June 2021, are eligible for prizes awarded in Fiction, Non-fiction, Drama, Poetry; and in work in any genre done in Composition courses, English 95 and 110. Students may submit work in any or all categories; work done as a class assignment is eligible. The Composition Prizes are limited to students whose work for English 95 and 110 was done in either Fall 2020 or Spring 2021. Page limits: for Non-fiction and Fiction, 20 pages; for Poetry, 10 pages; for Drama, two one-act plays or one full-length play. All work entries must be formatted according to MLA guidelines for English papers; students unsure of these guidelines may consult the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) at the following address:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/
ENTRIES NOT FORMATTED IN MLA STYLE WILL NOT BE READ.
Submissions are due via email (qcwritingprizes@gmail.com) by 11:59 p.m. on Friday, April 16th.
Follow this procedure when submitting work:
Students may submit work in any or all categories. Students must submit work via email to qcwritingprizes@gmail.com. Your email should be addressed to the Writing Prizes Committee. Indicate your name and your class standing in the body of your email. Please indicate for what prize you are submitting in the subject line of your email. For example, if you are submitting poetry, fiction, drama, or general non-fiction, please indicate so in the subject line of your email. If you are submitting work for a specific non-fiction prize (The David B. Feinberg Prize, The Clinton Oliver Prize, etc.), please indicate so in the subject line of your email.
Your emailed submission should include two attachments: a cover sheet and the work you are submitting. Please format your attachments as either Word documents (.doc or .docx) or pdfs. Google docs will not be accepted. Save your cover sheet document as the following: Pseudonym (Example: Zion.doc). Save your work document as the following: Pseudonym dot Genre of Submission (Example: Zion.Fiction.doc). Each submission should be a separate email. Therefore, if you are submitting in three genres, you will send three separate emails. The cover sheet should include the following information:
Pseudonym, Real Name and Student ID#
Genre of your submission, Specific non-fiction category (if necessary)
Address, Phone Number, Email Address
The work submitted should include a pseudonym in place of the student’s real name.
Here is a list of specified non-fiction prizes; all prizes carry monetary awards in the range of $50 to $500, but the amounts vary from year to year:
COMPOSITION PRIZE FOR WORK DONE IN ENGLISH 110
CLINTON OLIVER PRIZE FOR WORK IN BLACK AMERICAN STUDIES
THE JAMES E. TOBIN PRIZE FOR AN ESSAY ON POETRY
LEO STATSKY PRIZE FOR AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL WORK ON ENCOUNTERS WITH AMERICAN LIFE
THE CATHY DAVIDSON PRIZE FOR SCHOLARSHIP ON AMERICAN LITERATURE PRE-1865
THE KAY KIER MEMORIAL PRIZE FOR AN ESSAY ON LATE 19TH CENTURY (POST-1865) OR 20TH CENTURY AMERICAN LITERATURE
THE FACULTY PRIZE FOR AN ESSAY ON MEDIEVAL OR EARLY MODERN LITERATURE
THE FACULTY PRIZE FOR AN ESSAY ON SCIENCE FICTION, FANTASY, OR CHILDREN’S LITERATURE
THE FACULTY PRIZE FOR AN ESSAY ON THE GRAPHIC NOVEL
THE EDMUND L. EPSTEIN MEMORIAL PRIZE FOR AN ESSAY ON TWENTIETH CENTURY BRITISH OR IRISH LITERATURE
DAVID B. FEINBERG PRIZE FOR AN ESSAY ON GENDER AND SEXUALITY
QC ALUMNI PRIZE FOR AN ESSAY ON ASIAN AMERICAN STUDIES
QC ALUMNI PRIZE FOR AN ESSAY ON LATINX STUDIES
*Faculty may also nominate noteworthy work for specific prizes.
Prize-winners will be contacted in the last week of classes. The Writing Prizes Ceremony will take place in the second half of May, exact date and time soon to be announced! Please contact Annmarie Drury at annmarie.drury@qc.cuny.edu with any questions.
