Shayne Langford, a lecturer in the Department of English in the College of Letters and Science, won the Maurice Prize for Fiction for his unpublished novel, which he's been working on since his days as an undergraduate at UC Davis. John Lescroart, who started the prize, called Langford's manuscript “dark and powerful.”

Jessica Guerrieri (B.A., English, ’07) is this year’s winner of the Maurice Prize for Fiction. The prize, which includes a $10,000 award, is given to a UC Davis graduate who has not yet published a novel. Guerrieri wrote the novel she submitted, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, during the COVID pandemic lockdown.