Department of English Awards for the 2023-24 academic year
By Annabella McDaniel
The Department of English held its annual awards ceremony on Friday, April 12, 2024, at 3 p.m. in the Dodd Hall Auditorium. Timothy Gannon Associate Professor of English Alisha Gaines hosted the ceremony in her role as Awards Committee Chair, and English Professor and Department Chair Andrew Epstein delivered the welcoming remarks to the attendees.
A total of 32 awards were announced at the ceremony. Sixteen undergraduate and 13 graduate students received recognition for excellence in writing, teaching, and scholarship work in the 2023-34 academic year.
“We received an overwhelming number of submissions from very talented students,” said Gaines, who served as chair of the Awards Committee. “The essays, poems, and stories we read were innovative in all the best ways.”
The committee also included English Professors Celia Caputi and Jamie Fumo.
“As Literature, Media, and Culture Program faculty, we don’t often have the privilege of reading a lot of our students’ creative writing,” Gaines added. “This gave us a real window into the kinds of texts being workshopped in our department every week. I’m proud to say we have strong and capable students succeeding in each program in the English department.”
Among the undergraduate honorees 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 for Outstanding English Honors Thesis and Ariana White won the Gerald Ensley Emerging Journalist Award. Sydney Cole was awarded the Waters Fund for Excellence in Literature.
For the graduate student honors, Natalie Tombasco earned the Bertram and Ruth Davis Award for Outstanding Career as a Graduate Student. Fatima J. Alharthi and Ian Hall were co-winners of the Edward H. and Marie C. Kingsbury Fellowship. The Adam M. Johnson Fellowship went to Igbẹkẹle Salawu, and Nicholas Goodly won the Waters Excellence in Literature Award.
Gaines appreciated the overall work of this year’s committee.
“Celia and Jamie are easy collaborators who helped streamline the entire process,” she said. “And they weren’t even just on deadline, they were both early with their rankings.”
The ceremony concluded with closing remarks and attendees being welcomed to the post-awards ceremony hosted in the Williams Building Common Room. The department's awards ceremony for the 2024-25 winners is scheduled for Friday, April 11, 2025, from 3 to 5 p.m. in the Dodd Hall Auditorium.
Annabella McDaniel graduated from FSU in December 2024 with a bachelor's degree in English-Editing, Writing, and Media track, with a minor in humanities.
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Undergraduate Awards
Cody Harris Allen Award for Outstanding Writing
Andy Mills (2nd runner up)
Cody Harris Allen Award for Outstanding Writing
Sunrya Peace-Friedman (1st runner up)
Cody Harris Allen Award for Outstanding Writing
Lila Rush
John Mackay Shaw Academy of American Poets Award
Victoria D’Amico
Gerald Ensley Emerging Journalist Award
Ariana White
Steven D. Schloff Creative Writing Award for Poetry
Lexi Fuertes
Steven D. Schloff Creative Writing Award for Fiction
Madison Tilton
Steven D. Schloff Creative Writing Award for Non-Fiction
Chris Robertson
Sassaman Creative Writing Award
Isabelle Hoofnagle
Sassaman Critical Writing Award
Sean Faletti
James McCrimmon Award for Outstanding Writing in College Composition
Honorable mention: Reagan Gibson
James McCrimmon Award for Outstanding Writing in College Composition
Thurston Da Vitoria Lobo
George and Ruth Yost Award for Best Personal Essay Award
Annika VanDerlip
Waters Excellence in Literature Award
Sydney Cole
Robert Adler Endowed Memorial Fellowship
Madilene Lauder
John and Susan Ausley Scholarship
Gwen Vartdal
Mart P. Hill Award for Outstanding English Honors Thesis
Gwen Vartdal
Fred L. Standley Award for Undergraduate Excellence
Andy Mills
Edward H. and Marie C. Kingsbury Achievership Award
Andy Mills
Graduate Awards
Marian Bashinski Award for Excellence in Teaching First-year Composition
Shelby Ramsey
Bryan Hall Award for Excellence in Teaching First-year Composition
Lauren Reilly
Robert O. Lawton Award for Excellence in Teaching First-year Composition
Chloe Rodriguez
Fred L. Standley Graduate Assistant Teaching Award
Daniel Stefanelli
Sassaman Award for Outstanding Critical Writing
Emma Bruce
Sassaman Award for Outstanding Creative Writing
Zuleyha Lasky
Robert Adler Endowed Memorial Fellowship Award
Gwen Niekamp
Waters Excellence in Literature Award
Nicholas Goodly
John Mackay Shaw Academy of American Poets Award
Olivia Sokolowski
Adam M. Johnson Fellowship
Igbẹkẹle Salawu
Edward H. and Marie C. Kingsbury Fellowship
Fatima J. Alharthi
Edward H. and Marie C. Kingsbury Fellowship
Ian Hall
Bertram and Ruth Davis Award for Outstanding Career as a Graduate Student
Natalie Tombasco