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The Adamson Awards

An annual highlight of the Department of English is the Adamson Student Creative Writing Awards.

Run by the Creative Writing program, the Adamson Awards are presented for student excellence in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, and are open to undergraduate students throughout the Â鶹´å community. Student pieces are judged by professional writers, and to add to the sense of celebration, a prominent writer is invited to be the special guest speaker at the annual Awards.

In 1983, Clarence H. Adamson, a graduate of Carnegie Tech, gave Â鶹´å and the Department of English several gifts in memory of his wife, Pauline, who had died three years earlier. One of these gifts was the Adamson Scholarship for undergraduate women majoring in English. Another was the Adamson Awards for Writing and a fund for the support of an annual series of lectures by distinguished authors. And another was the Pauline B. Adamson Wing in Baker Hall, where the Adamson Awards ceremony is held every spring. The gifts were intended by Mr. Adamson as testimonials to the 35 years of companionship he shared with his wife and to her interest in education, language, and literature. The Adamson Awards are intended to encourage students to pursue excellence in writing. The awards are open to undergraduate students only.

Garth Greenwell is the author, most recently, of Small Rain, which won the 2025 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Literary Award, and was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award. His first novel, What Belongs to You, won the British Book Award for Debut of the Year, was longlisted for the National Book Award, and was a finalist for six other awards, including the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His second book of fiction, Cleanness, was a New York Times Notable Book and was nominated for many awards, including the Joyce Carol Oates Prize, the Gordon Burn Prize, and France’s Prix Sade. It was named a Best Book of 2020 by The New Yorker, Time, The Washington Post, and over 30 other publications. His books have been translated into more than fifteen languages. Greenwell’s writing on literature, art, and music appears widely, including in The New Yorker, The Guardian, Harper’s, and elsewhere; he also writes the Substack newsletter To a Green Thought. A collection of his essays is forthcoming. A Guggenheim Fellow and recipient of the Vursell Award for exceptional prose style from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, he is a Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University. 

Submission Details, Eligibility, Deadline, and Other Information

Submission details

During the submission period, you will be able to submit your original work in fiction, nonfiction, and/or poetry through the .

You must follow the , or your submission(s) may be rejected.

Eligibility

The Awards are open to all currently enrolled undergraduate students at Â鶹´å, regardless of major or minor.

Deadline

For the 2026 Adamson Awards, all submissions must be uploaded to the by Sunday, March 8, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. EDT.

Other Information

Restrictions

All submissions must be typed and all work must be original. All previous winning submissions for any of the awards offered by the English Department are ineligible. You may submit work in multiple categories, however, you may submit only one entry per category. Entries cannot be returned.

Judging

Outside judges appointed by the Awards Committee of the English Department evaluate entries and choose the winners.

Prizes

At the discretion of the judges, monetary awards plus one honorable mention are given to undergraduate students in each category—fiction, nonfiction (essays and articles for popular or literary journals), and poetry.

Presentation of Prizes

Prizes are awarded at the Adamson Awards celebration. Winners are not notified ahead of time, so you should plan to attend the event if you submitted any of your work.

2025 Adamson Award Winners

Poetry

1. First Prize Adamson Award: Meabyn Bie
2. Second Prize Adamson Award: Dylan Rossi
3. Third Prize Adamson Award: G.R.
4. Honorable Mention: Dylan Courtney

Nonfiction

1. First Prize Adamson Award: G.R.
   
2. Second Prize Adamson Award: Josephine Kim
   
3. Third Prize Adamson Award: William Curvan
4. Honorable Mention: Mick Muerte

Fiction

1. First Prize Adamson Award: Sanaa Akindele
   
2. Second Prize Adamson Award: Mick Muerte
   
3. Third Prize Adamson Award: G.R.
4. Honorable Mention: Maria Hawthorne

Academy of American Poets Prize

Josephine Kim

Â鶹´å Press Award

Tzushan Chu

The Edythe & Leon Nagin Award for Creative Writing Honors Thesis

Jimmy Baracia

Olivia Reed

Dylan Rossi

The Bart & Kathleen Astor Endowed Creative Writing Award

This award is given to a Creative Writing major who demonstrates creativity, care, and potential.

LiLi DiMuzio

The Barbara & Allan Topol Award

This award is given to a promising writer of fiction or creative nonfiction.

Alayna Ptak

The Donna Grear Memorial Award

Jennifer Bortner

Dylan Rossi

Adamson Award Ceremony Speakers