English Department Prizes, Awards, and Scholarships

Writing Awards

The English Department at SUNY Oneonta is soliciting submissions for the department's writing awards: the five Laurence B. Goodrich prizes. These awards are open to all majors. Each prize includes a cash award and winning entries will be posted on the English Department website, and winners will be invited to read their entries at our Red Dragon Reading Series.

How to Apply: All entries should be submitted electronically as a PDF file. E-mail your entries to writingawards@oneonta.edu. You may enter more than one contest, but each submission should be a separate e-mail. Be sure to indicate the specific prize (Critical Essay Prize, Poetry Prize, etc.) in the subject line. You may submit one essay, one story, and up to three poems. Submissions may have been written during the previous spring semester (2023) or the current academic year (2023–2024).

Deadline: Friday, April 5, 2024

Laurence B. Goodrich Prize

The Goodrich Prize recognizes outstanding writing in four categories: personal essay or creative nonfiction, critical essay, fiction, and poetry . Each prize winner will receive a cash award.

  • The Goodrich Personal Essay or Creative Non-fiction Prize for the best personal essay or creative non-fiction submitted during the academic year. The maximum length is 2,000 words.
  • The Goodrich Critical Essay Prize for the best essay in literary criticism submitted during the academic year. Submissions are encouraged from students in literature courses at level 200 and above. The minimum length is 2,000 words.
  • The Goodrich Poetry Prize for the best poem submitted during the academic year. Submit up to three poems or six pages of poetry.

Harry Bloom Fiction Prize

The Harry Bloom Fiction Prize for the best short story submitted by an undergraduate student. The maximum length is 7,000 words.

Additional Department Awards

Minnie P. Olive Award

The Minnie P. Olive Award is presented to the graduating senior who has demonstrated the most outstanding academic excellence in English. The Minnie P. Olive Scholar will receive an award of $100.00.

The English Department Academic Achievement Award

Each year, the English Department faculty as a whole meets to consider the academic records of our graduating seniors. Reviewing the scholarly accomplishments of the seniors with the most outstanding GPAs, the faculty chooses one student whose scholarly performance stands out from the crowd, considering not only the quantified GPAs but also more intangible issues of intellectual originality, austerity, and professional potential. Winners' names are permanently displayed in Milne Library. The award winners in this category attend a banquet celebrating the achievements of scholars from other departments as well as English.

The Susan Sutton Smith Scholarship

The Susan Sutton Smith Scholarship was established in 1998 by the parents of the late Dr. Susan Sutton Smith, an esteemed colleague in the English Department. It is a scholarship of approximately $500 awarded to an English major who shows academic promise. It is renewable, provided the student completes three English courses per academic year and maintains a 3.5 GPA in the English major and a 3.25 GPA overall.

John '78 and Sandra Carey Scholarship

The John '78 and Sandra Carey Scholarship is awarded to First Generation, Under Represented English majors. It is renewable.

The Gwen Crane Scholarship

The English Department is currently seeking to establish a scholarship in memory of Dr. Gwen Crane, who taught medieval English literature at SUNY Oneonta for 27 years until her death in April 2021. Donations can be made online (select "Other" for the "Designation" and then type in "Gwen Crane Memorial Scholarship") or by contacting the Division of University Advancement.

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