The Patrick Panzarella Writing Awards are an annual celebration of excellence in student writing organized by the Department of English and generously supported by the Patrick Panzarella Endowment. The awards are open to all students.

The award categories and criteria are as follows:

• Short Critical Writing: An essay or research paper written for an ENG course. Submitted papers must be 500–1750 words. Students may submit multiple papers; total submitted work may not exceed 1750 words.
• Long Critical Writing: An essay or research paper written for an ENG course. Submitted papers must be 1751–4200 words. Students may submit multiple papers; total submitted work may not exceed 4200 words.
• Fiction/Creative Non-Fiction: One or more pieces of prose written for an ENG course. Total submitted work may not exceed 3000 words.
• Poetry: Three or more poems written for an ENG course. Total submitted work may not exceed 2000 words.
• Digital Writing: Work produced for an ENG course using digital platforms and technologies other than word processing software: websites, slideshows, videos, podcasts, other digital platforms such as Twine, etc. Blog posts that mainly work as critical writing count toward the Short Critical Writing category.

All submissions should be saved as PDF documents with your last name and the name of the award category in the name of the file. For Digital Writing, you may submit another type of file or a web link. You may submit work for more than one category. Your submission email should note the class information (class, instructor, assignment) for which the work was originally submitted.

Entries are due by April 1 each year. Submit all entries and questions to Dr. Kaplan Harris. Winners will be announced in early May, and awarded at the annual Panzarella Banquet and Spring Reception.

Congratulations to these outstanding writers!

• Short Critical Writing
  • 1st Place: Ana Dobrot, "Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave Through the Lens of Toni Morrison's Historical Narrative Reconstruction Theory"
  • 2nd Place: Madison McMahon, "The Cost of Selfishness and Power in Frankenstein"
  • 3rd Place: Maris Sadowski, "From Feeling Shame to Owning Her Body: The Evolution of Xiomara Body Image in Elizabeth Acevedo's The Poet X"
• Long Critical Writing
  • 1st Place: M.Q. McNaughton, "The Alien Sex, the Enemy Sex: Zoe, Rebecca, and Oscar as Victims of the Patriarchy"
  • 2nd Place: Lincoln Counihan, "Captivity Narrative Analysis" 
  • 3rd Place: Zachary Reemmer, "Reality vs. Representation in Uncle Tom's Cabin" 
• Fiction/Creative Nonfiction
  • 1st Place: Lincoln Counihan, "Personal Nature Essay"
  • 2nd Place: AnnMarie Truesdell, "The Moon is a Woman"
  • 3rd Place: Rose Pfeiffer, "Roots" 
  Poetry
  • 1st Place: Andrew Fox, "This Forest Promises Nothing" and "Classical Illness"
  • 2nd Place: Abigail Taber, "Matching"
  • 3rd Place: Tanner Pasi, "Sensory Waves"         
• Digital Writing
  • 1st Place: Tanner Pasi, "Mall Hop! (System Design)-- WritHub"