2026 Creative Writing, Critical Essays, and Department Award Winners

FICTION

Anne Flexner Memorial Award for Fiction

Family members and friends of former English student Anne Flexner (1945) established the Anne Flexner Memorial Award for Creative Writing to recognize undergraduates for their work in fiction and poetry. 

(Co-Winners) - Davis Shedd,'27- Daddy, Daddy and Audie Waller, '28 - Better Than Talking

Reynolds Price Fiction Award 

The Reynolds Price Fiction Award was established in memory of the distinguished novelist, essayist, poet, and public intellectual Reynolds Price, a graduate of Duke and professor in the English Department for over 50 years. 

Sarah Pusser, '28 - Hold Me Mother

CREATIVE NONFICTION

George P. Lucaci Creative Nonfiction Award

This award was created to encourage creative nonfiction writing and honor George P. Lucaci, a former Duke student who has actively supported undergraduate creative writing in the English Department for many years. 

1^st Place - Vivian Lu, '29 - A Century of Clicks

2^nd Place (Co-winners) - Arim Lim, '26 - River and Debbie Wang, '28 - My First Boyfriend

POETRY

Anne Flexner Memorial Award for Poetry

Family members and friends of former English student Anne Flexner (1945) established the Anne Flexner Memorial Award for Creative Writing to recognize undergraduates for their work in fiction and poetry. 

1^st Place - Adolya Moore, '26 - picket fences

2^nd Place - Zhiyuan Ma, '26 - Hesitation: Six Poems

Terry Welby Tyler, Jr Award for Poetry

This award was established by the family of Terry Welby Tyler, Jr., who would have graduated with the class of 1997 to recognize and honor outstanding undergraduate poetry. 

Matthew Chen, '26 - There was a blackout in the city and I could not find you

Academy of American Poets

Founded in 1934 in New York City, the Academy of American Poets is the largest membership-based nonprofit organization advocating for American poets and poetry.  Its mission is to support American poets at all stages of their careers and foster contemporary poetry appreciation. 

1^st Place - Emerson Eickhold, '28 - The Periphery of Infancy

Honorable Mention – Ava Williams, '28 - Kaleidoscope

Critical Essay & Department Awards

Stanley E. Fish Award for Outstanding Work in British & Anglophone Literature

This award recognizes outstanding work by an undergraduate enrolled in an English course in British Literature.

 Lily Egol, '26 - Learning Life from Novel Reading: Quixotism and Education in Eighteenth-Century Women’s Writing

(Honorable Mention) Taylor Delgado ‘26 - The (Artificial) Lover: Kazuo Ishiguro & Ian McEwan’s Pursuit of Resonance in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

Louis J. Budd Award for Outstanding Work in American Literature

This award recognizes outstanding work by an undergraduate enrolled in an English course in American Literature.

Trisha Santanam, '26 - American Folk

(Honorable Mention) Anna Sorenson ‘26 -Moral Crimes, Intimate Cruelties: Judging Sexuality in Postwar American Literature

Barbara Herrnstein Smith Award for Outstanding Work in Literary Theory

This award recognizes outstanding work by an undergraduate enrolled in an English course in literary theory or criticism. 

Sophia Berg, '26 - The Fall of the West: A Númenórean Anatomy of a Neo-Fascist Power

(Honorable Mention) Thulsy Krishnan ‘26 - Metaphors About Nature: Charles Darwin and Suzanne Simard

Victor Strandberg Award for Excellence in the Literary Arts

This award, made possible by the Seinfeld family, recognizes an undergraduate for excellence in the literary arts. 

(Co-winners) Rebecca Arian, '26 and Megan O’Sullivan, '26

Most Original Thesis

This award recognizes a senior student for writing the most original honors thesis.

Erin Lee, '26 - Losers, Lovers, and Loners: Internet Identities and Parasocial Relationships in Esther Yi’s Y/N and Tony Tulathimutte’s Rejection

Critical Essay Prize

Each year Duke English sponsors a critical essay competition that is open for essays written by any Duke undergraduate enrolled in an English department course.  Submissions must be critical essays of nonfiction produced for a class during the current academic year in which the student is enrolled.

Olivia Ess, '28 - Punishing Need: Gender and Dependence in the Early Modern Period and Today

Bascom Headen Palmer Literary Prize

Awarded annually by the Program in Literature to recognize the best senior honors thesis in literary study each spring. Faculty nominate annually in early April. 

Diego Romero Laje-Davila, '26 - Reading Choice in Simone de Beauvoir through Iris Murdoch