The department is accepting submissions for annual awards
By Ellie Johnson
At the end of every academic year, Florida State University’s Department of English honors outstanding undergraduate and graduate students. The department recognizes students for various accomplishments, through 28 separate awards, including ones for excellent writing, for outstanding graduate teaching, for academic achievements, and for several fellowships.
Department faculty members oversee the process for reviewing submissions and selecting winners. Associate Professor Christina Parker-Flynn is chair of this year’s awards committee.
“I help facilitate the students’ submission of applications, help guide the awards committee meetings and assign readers for each award, contact the winners, and help plan the awards ceremony,” Parker-Flynn says.
Once the
submission period closes on Friday, March 7, at 5 p.m., she will divvy up the applications among the committee members, so that each award has approximately three readers.
“When the winners are finalized, I will contact them with the good news,” Parker-Flynn says. “Certainly, the best part of the job, which I’m very much looking forward to.”
This year’s ceremony will take place April 11, at 3:30 p.m., in the Dodd Hall Auditorium.
One award especially sought out by undergraduate students is the Cody Harris Allen Award for Outstanding Writing. Last year, English-Literature, Media, and Culture major Lila Rush had the honor of earning this award.
Rush’s award-winning undergraduate paper explored a book trace on A. Proctor’s 1858 publication Legends and Lyrics. A book trace involves discovering original marginalia notations that remain on literary volumes. The process can often indicate the original use of a literary work and help readers to understand the social role or environment of the readers who came before them.
“It was really cool because we got to do hands-on research in my literature class, which I feel like is something you don’t always get to do,” Rush explains.
The committee awarded Rush for her dedication to this research project and for exploring topics that inspire her research in general. Distinguished Research Professor of English Robin Goodman presented Rush with the Cody Harris Allen Award at the 2024 awards ceremony.
“Lila combined scholarly rigor with a close-reading of the text and tied the analysis to issues of social concern,” Goodman says. “She was able to reread a 160-year-old text to show its relevance to an interpretation of our contemporary situation, giving new life to both the old text and present politics.”
Being presented the award by a professor who had a strong impact on her academic success was one of the special aspects for Rush.
“I’m just so grateful for her believing in me and making me feel like I had important things to say,” Rush says.
Rush was awarded for a research-based writing project, but the department recognizes several other forms of writing, as well—exceptional work in the forms of poetry, short fiction, essays, plays, and screenplays—giving students opportunities to be recognized for either academic or creative fields of writing.
Among the undergraduate honorees for the 2023-24 academic year were Andy Mills, who earned both the Fred L. Standley Award for Undergraduate Excellence and the Edward H. and Marie C. Kingsbury Achievership Award. Additionally, Gwen Vartdal was named the Mart P. Hill Award winner for Outstanding English Honors Thesis, and she earned the John and Susan Ausley Scholarship. Ariana White won the Gerald Ensley Emerging Journalist Award, and Sydney Cole was awarded the Waters Fund for Excellence in Literature.
In addition to teaching awards, graduate students are also recognized for creative and critical writing pieces. They also earn fellowships, such as Fatima J. Alharthi and Ian Hall being named co-winners of the Edward H. and Marie C. Kingsbury Fellowship. Igbẹkẹle Salawu earned the Adam M. Johnson Fellowship, and Nicholas Goodly won the Waters Excellence in Literature Award. See the full list of 2023-24 winners here.
“I’m really looking forward to my role in helping celebrate all the great work our English majors and graduate students are doing,” Parker-Flynn says.
The deadline to submit work for consideration is Friday, March 7, by 5 p.m.
Ellie Johnson is a double major in English-Editing, Writing, and Media and in psychology.
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