Awards

The Christiaan Theodoor Lievestro Prize

For Extraordinary Achievement by an English Major

The Christiaan Theodoor Lievestro Prize is offered by the English Department of Santa Clara University through the generosity of a Professor who taught in the English Department from 1969 until he retired in 1994. The prize, administered by a committee composed of English Department faculty, recognizes that students’ work written to complete University and major requirements include responses to a variety of different kinds of assignments; therefore the best-written work by an English major will not conform to a single format or style. The prize will be awarded to the English major whose Lievestro Prize Portfolio of essays best demonstrates a sustained, improved, and/or versatile ability to think and write about complex literary-critical, cultural, rhetorical, or theoretical issues. The winner of the Christiaan Theodoor Lievestro Prize will be listed in the Commencement Program and will receive a cash prize.

Eligibility

Any English major who will successfully complete a Senior Seminar in the Santa Clara University English Department by the end of this academic year is eligible to submit a portfolio. 

Evaluation of the Portfolios

The Prize Committee will evaluate the portfolios submitted for the contest on the basis of evidence of the student’s sustained excellence as an effective and critical thinker and writer in two to three essays.

Requirements

A cover page with the English major’s name, student ID number, address, telephone number, email address, and the name of the senior seminar teacher. The student’s name must not appear anywhere else in the portfolio. Identify everything else by student ID number.

A one-page, typed self-assessment of the essays included in the portfolio.  This self-assessment should articulate reasons why the essays selected for the portfolio constitute extraordinary achievement.  If desired, information about the assignments the essays respond to may also be included.

A maximum of three essays, minimum of two, written for courses offered by the SCU English Department, at least one of which must be 10-20 pages in length.  Although individual essays in the portfolio may provide evidence of different kinds of achievement, the portfolio should demonstrate some of the following abilities:

• to develop and sustain an original argument
• to use a variety of primary and secondary sources intelligently
• to understand related criticism, scholarship, and theory on a particular text or topic
• to think beyond what has already been written on a topic
• to engage with particularly challenging subject matter
• to think through complex ideas and present them in a format appropriate for academic writing (including adherence to academic conventions for citations of sources).

Submission Requirements and Deadline

Manuscripts must be received by the Christiaan Theodoor Lievestro Prize Committee on Monday, April 22, 2024.  The winner will be notified by early May and will receive a monetary prize at our awards event.  All manuscripts and correspondence should be e-mailed to Jessica Gopp. Please send your manuscript as an attachment, do not paste it into the body of your email.

In Literary Criticism or Theory

The Katherine Woodall Prize is offered by the English Department of Santa Clara University through the generosity of an alumna in collaboration with the Levi-Strauss Corporation. Katherine Woodall's gift to the English Department was made "to encourage and promote scholarship among students at Santa Clara." The Prize, administered by a faculty committee, is designed to acknowledge excellent essays that analyze and/or interpret one or more literary texts or that examine issues in literary criticism or theory. While knowledge of existing critical and theoretical discussions of the text(s) and issues should be an important element in these essays, a persuasive articulation of the author's original contributions to the critical/theoretical discussion is the single most important element in selecting the prize-winning essay.

The winner of the Katherine Woodall Prize in Literary Criticism or Theory will be listed in the Commencement Program. The Katherine Woodall prize is open to all Santa Clara University senior English majors writing critical or theoretical essays in upper-division English courses. Only essays of a critical, theoretical, and scholarly nature are eligible. (Poetry and Fiction should be submitted to The Academy of American Poets Prize, the Shipsey Poetry Prize, or the McCann Short Story Prize.) Faculty are encouraged to contact students who have written excellent essays for their recent courses, although students may also submit essays on their own. Essays submitted for the Woodall prize must have been written for courses offered in the Spring 2023, Fall 2023, or Winter 2024 quarters. Essays may have been revised. Students in senior seminars may submit essays for both the Woodall and Lievestro prizes, but may win only one of these prizes. A student can submit no more than two essays.

Manuscript Format Guidelines

Manuscripts must double-spaced and formatted for 8 1/2 by 11 inches paper. Each manuscript must include (1) a cover page with the author's name, student identification number, address, phone number, email address (if available), along with the manuscript title, instructor's name and title of the course for which the paper was written, and the date the paper was originally written; and (2) a title page giving only the manuscript title. The cover page will be removed so that each submission can be read anonymously. If the author's name appears anywhere except on the cover page, the manuscript will be disqualified. Manuscripts should use current MLA guidelines for format and documentation.

Submission Requirements Deadline

Manuscripts must be received by the Katherine Woodall Prize Committee no later than Monday, April 22, 2024. The winner will be notified in early May and will receive a monetary prize at our awards event. All manuscripts and correspondence should be e-mailed to Jessica Gopp. Please send manuscript as an attachment, do not paste into the body of your email.

Contest Description

A cash award totaling $800 is given annually to a Santa Clara University undergraduate for an unpublished short story under 20 pages. The award also may be divided among multiple winning stories.

Manuscript Guidelines: 

Please include a cover page with only the name of the contest, last four digits of your student ID#, and title of story.

In the email, include the following information: 

• Name of the contest 
• Author’s name 
• Address 
• Phone number 
• E-mail address 
• Last four digits of campus ID# 
• Title of the story  

Deadline: 

Submit entries to english@scu.edu by Monday, April 22, 2024. A check is awarded at our awards event to a Santa Clara University undergraduate for an unpublished short story of any length. The award also may be divided among multiple winning stories.

History

The Shipsey Poetry Prize was established in 1954 by Richard W. Schmidt in honor of the late Edward Shipsey, S.J. This prize recognizes the outstanding contribution in the art of poetry as determined by an annual competition.

Founded in 1994 by Victoria Verga Logan and Frank Verga Jr., in memory of Tamara Verga, the Academy of American Poets Tamara Verga Prize is given to the undergraduate who writes the best group of poems as determined by an annual competition.

Submission Guidelines:

A cash award is given at our awards event to an SCU undergraduate for an individual poem or group of poems. Submit up to three poems. The Shipsey Poetry Prize is awarded for one poem. The award also may be divided among multiple winning entries. The Academy of American Poets Tamara Verga Poetry Prize ($100) will be awarded to the winning poem/group of poems.

You may submit the same 1-3 poems to both poetry contests, but you should submit separate manuscripts. Poems must be previously unpublished.  

Manuscript Guidelines: 

Manuscripts must be typed and poems should be single-spaced. Submit via email two copies of the manuscript for each contest. One copy must include a cover page with the following: the name of the contest, the writer’s name, year in school, address, phone number, e-mail address, last four digits of campus ID #, and the titles of the poems. The other copy must include a cover page with only the name of the contest, the last four digits of campus ID #, and the titles of the poems.

Deadline:

Submit entries to the english@scu.edu, Monday, April 22, 2024. Subject of email should contain the name of the award.

What is Multimodal?

Multimodal writing projects use text in combination with visual and/or auditory tools to craft compelling and engaging arguments, meditations, essays, critical analyses, research projects, and more. Multimodal Projects take many forms including, blogs and websites, podcasts, videos, audio interviews, collages, storyboards, etc.

Eligible Students:

Any SCU student. Submissions can be single or multi-author works.

Prize:

Monetary prize presented at our awards event and publication of the winning entry on the English department website (with your permission).

Submission Guidelines:

Entries that do not comply with procedures will be disqualified. Entries should be multimodal compositions created for an SCU course or campus organization/initiative. Examples might include a video, podcast, website, blog, etc.

Submission Instructions:

• Email entry to english@scu.edu
• Use Multimodal Writing Prize as the subject line

Include in email message:

• Your name, contact information, and SCU ID number
• If the submission represents a collaborative effort include all contact and ID information from every author within the e-mail
• A brief description of the audience and purpose of your project
• Your project as a link or attachment

Deadline:

Monday, April 22, 2024