Calling all UC Davis students: Are you a poet, essayist or fiction writer? The College of Letters and Science’s Department of English is hosting seven writing contests open to UC Davis graduate and undergraduate students. Deadlines are in April.
Below are contest descriptions, entry requirements, deadlines and a link to each contest page. Good luck!
Open to all UC Davis students
The Celeste Turner Wright Poetry Contest honors the first woman professor at UC Davis, Professor Celeste Turner Wright.
The competition is designed to encourage the artistic and creative development of student poets. The Academy of American Poets is offering a cash prize of up to $100 for the best poem or group of poems submitted by a registered full time UC Davis student at the time of the award, either graduate or undergraduate.
The contest accepts five original, unpublished poems. Entries should be 10 pages or under, with each poem on its own page.
The submission deadline is April 15. Learn more and submit your entry here.
Open to all UC Davis undergraduates
UC Davis is hosting two writing contests open to undergraduates across the university.
The Diana Lynn Bogart Prize for Fiction promotes the work of all talented UC Davis undergraduates. Entries must be a fiction short story or novel expert of up to 35 pages. All manuscripts must be double-spaced and numbered. Entries must be submitted anonymously.
The submission deadline is April 15. Learn more and submit your entry here.
The Peter Hays Writing Prize is awarded to the best paper written for, or related to, a first-year seminar class. Instructors must nominate an essay for this award, with one nomination per class. Entries should be 5-10 double spaced pages. Papers must be submitted anonymously. Nominations will be accepted at the end of each quarter. To learn more, click here.
The winter quarter submission deadline is April 15; spring quarter submissions are due July 1.
Learn more or nominate a paper here.
Open to students in the Department of English
The Department of English at UC Davis is hosting two writing contests open to both graduate students in English and undergraduates majoring in English.
The Deirdre Hackett Endowment for Undergraduate Experiential Learning was established in 2021 in memory of Deirdre Hackett, an English major from the class of 1987 who also pursued graduate studies in English at UC Davis. She was an avid reader with a particular fondness for poetry whose passion for books led her to a career in publishing.
Submissions must be a 500 word proposal of an activity that benefits student learning, including a brief budget and source for funding.
The deadline is April 10. Learn more and submit your entry here.
The Professor Jack Hicks Award in English supports Department of English students pursuing learning opportunities reaching “beyond the classroom" and stretch the traditional definitions of literary scholarship, creative writing and media studies.
Entries must be a 500 word account of a proposed learning activity that relates to their work as a reader or writer. It must include a brief budget and source for funding.
The submission deadline is April 15. Learn more and submit your entry here.
Open to undergraduate English majors
The Lois Ann Lattin Rosenberg Outstanding Graduating Senior Award is open to graduating English majors.
Requirements include a minimum overall GPA of 3.5 and a minimum upper-division GPA in the major of 3.75.
Submissions must be 7-12 pages with a 250-word statement highlighting the contestants' major.
The deadline is April 15. Learn more here before submitting.
Open to English or comparative literature majors
The Pamela Maus Contest was established in 1984 to honor Ron and Shirley Maus’ late daughter Pamela Ingebar Maus, who was an English major at UC Davis with an interest in creative writing. The primary goal of the Pamela Maus Contest is to encourage previously unpublished writers. Entries must not have been previously published and must be the original work of the contestant.
Contestants must be undergraduates with declared majors in English or comparative literature. The contest accepts works of fiction up to 30 double-spaced pages and 1 to 6 poems of up to 12 pages.
The submission deadline is April 25. Learn more here.
Learn about all the Department of English's current awards and prizes.
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