Special Events & Awards

The Creative Writing Program hosts an undergraduate reading and reception each semester. In the spring, we also host the annual West 10th release party and reading. Additionally, undergraduates are invited to all Creative Writing Program Reading Series events.

This year, the West 10th Reading & Release Party will take place on Saturday, April 4, and the Spring 09 Undergraduate Reading will take place on Friday, April 17. Both events will be held at the Lillian Vernon Creative Writers House (58 West 10th Street) and will be begin at 7:00pm. They are free and open to the public.

The best way to keep abreast of readings and undergraduate events is to join the undergraduate listserv. If you enroll in a creative writing course, you'll be added automatically. Otherwise, if you are a current NYU undergraduate, you can just email us your first and last name from the address where you'd like to receive listserv announcements. Please title your email "Join UG Listserv" and send it to creative.writing@nyu.edu. If you have any general event questions, please feel free to call or email us (212-998-8816 or creative.writing@nyu.edu).

UNDERGRADUATE AWARDS

2009-2010 Awards

>Tory Dent Research Scholarship in Creative Writing
The Tory Dent Research Scholarship in Creative Writing provides support for an undergraduate student to pursue research or travel in connection with a writing project. Project proposals are due February 1, 2010. Click on the link above for more information.

>The Downtown Pix Creative Writing Prize
Sponsored by the NYU Creative Writing Program, this competition will award a $200 prize for the best poem or short prose piece written by a NYU undergraduate in response to the exhibition Downtown Pix: Mining the Fales Archives, 1961 - 1991, on view at the Grey Art Gallery from January 12 through April 3, 2010. A runner-up will receive $100, and both authors' work will be published on our website. Please check back for submission guidelines.

>The West 10th Editors' Awards in Prose & Poetry
To celebrate the publication of its student-edited undergraduate literary journal, West 10th, the NYU Creative Writing Program sponsors the West 10th Editors’ Awards each spring. Program faculty serving as Executive Editors select one poem and one prose piece from the student contributions to be featured in the upcoming issue of the journal. Award recipients each receive a prize of $200, are published on our website, and are invited to read their work at the West 10th release party in early April.

2008-2009 Awards

>Tory Dent Research Scholarship in Creative Writing
Congratulations to Greg Solano and Patrick Blagrave, 2008-2009 recipients of Tory Dent Research Scholarship funds. Click on the link above to read about their projects.

>The Poetics of Cloth Creative Writing Prize
Congratulations to winner Karen Chien ("Movement No. 3") and runner-up Andrew Colarusso ("Allophonic Loom Blues")! Thanks to all students who submitted work inspired by The Poetics of Cloth exhibition.

>The West 10th Editors' Awards in Prose & Poetry
Congratulations to winners Alexa Wejko (for her poem, "Melt Eventually") and Anna Zucker (for her story, "I've Been Looking") and to all students whose work will be published in the 2008-09 issue of West 10th.

Past Awards

Past creative writing awards have included the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Poetry Award, the Seth Barkas Prize in Creative Writing (Fiction), and The Geometry of Hope Creative Writing Prize. 

The Thomas Wolfe Memorial Poetry Award & The Seth Barkas Prize in Creative Writing (Fiction)
The Thomas Wolfe Memorial Poetry Award was generously donated by Professors Cargill and Pollock from royalties on their book, Thomas Wolfe at Washington Square. The Seth Barkas Prize in Creative Writing was established in loving memory of Seth Barkas (NYU Class of 1966). Advanced NYU creative writing students were eligible to be nominated for the Wolfe Award and the Barkas Prize. Nominations were made by advanced workshop faculty members.

The Geometry of Hope Creative Writing Prize
The Geometry of Hope Creative Writing Prize competition, co-organized by New York University's Creative Writing Program and Grey Art Gallery, awarded $500 in November, 2007, for the best poem or short prose piece written by an NYU undergraduate in response to the exhibition The Geometry of Hope: Latin American Abstract Art from the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection, which was on view at the Grey Art Gallery from September 12 through December 8, 2007. This prize was supported by a generous grant from the Fundación Cisneros. Entries were due on Friday, October 26, 2007, and Creative Writing Program faculty served as judges. A prize reading was held at the Grey Art Gallery on Wednesday, November 28, 2007. Special thanks to Edward J. Sullivan, Dean for the Humanities, and, at the Grey Art Gallery, Lynn Gumpert, Director, and Lucy Oakley, Head of Education and Programs, for making this program possible.

PREVIOUS AWARD WINNERS

2007-2008
Seth Barkas Prize
First Place: Melanie Shaw
Honorable Mention: Devon Bixler

Thomas Wolfe Award
First Place: William Sterling
Honorable Mention: Shireen Madon

The Geometry of Hope Creative Writing Prize
Winner: Nick Micheletti
Finalists: Patrick Blagrave, Jesse Molli, & Alexa Wejko

2006-2007
Seth Barkas Prize
First Place: Leo Rodriguez
Honorable Mention: Agnes Petrucione and Leila Thurtell (tie)

Thomas Wolfe Award
First Place: Ingrid Chung
Honorable Mention: Zlata Zavorskaya

2005-2006
Seth Barkas Prize
First Place: Ryan Grim
Honorable Mention: Jacqueline Orlando

Thomas Wolfe Award
First Place: Zachary Greenwald
Honorable Mention: Reed Rosenberg

2004-2005
Seth Barkas Prize
First Place: Tao Lin
Honorable Mention: Max Ross

Thomas Wolfe Award
First Place: David Alworth

2003-2004
Seth Barkas Prize
First Place: Brendan Kelly & Fred Nicolaus

Thomas Wolfe Award
First Place: Lindsay Reckson
Honorable Mention: Kendra Sullivan

2002-2003
Seth Barkas Prize
First Place: Amalea Smirniotopoulos
Second Place: Fred H. Nicolaus
Honorable Mention: Edward P. Thompson

Thomas Wolfe Award
First Place: Erica Wright
Honorable Mention: Emily Metzner