The English Department is proud to give out a number of awards to students each year. Literature award applications are due on March 1 and are announced in April. The R2 awards are announced at the R2 launch party in April. Only currently-enrolled Rice undergraduates are eligible. Inprint Marion Barthelme creative writing prize applications are due in December; the prize is awarded in January or February.
All senior award recipients and their families are invited to the English Department's Honors and Awards Reception prior to Rice's Commencement ceremony in May. Please check with our staff for more information about this event.
Literature Awards
Lady Geddes Essay Writing Prize
This is an annual writing competition for the best academic paper written in an English class (subject code, ENGL) by a currently-enrolled freshman or sophomore (of any major).
Walter Isle Memorial Endowment
This endowment awards grants to English majors in support of research on projects addressing environmental and/or ecological topics and issues.
The Caroline S. and David L. Minter Award for Outstanding Essay Prize
This competitive prize is awarded for a paper of ten or more pages written for an English course by a current junior or senior English major.
The Caroline S. and David L. Minter Award for Outstanding Graduating English Major
Created to honor Emeritus English Professor David Minter and his wife, Caroline, this award is given out every year to a graduating English major with an extraordinary GPA and whose transcript demonstrates a breadth of scholarship.
Minter Summer Scholars Program
These competitive awards are given out every year to students whose research over the summer will benefit their work in English during the following semester.
Fiona Tolhurst Memorial Award
This award is given out each year to a graduating English major who has demonstrated academic excellence in upper-level courses, and has expressed interest in a graduate degree.
Creative Writing Awards
Inprint Marion Barthelme Prize in Creative Writing
This competitive award is given out by Inprint every year to a graduating student who has completed course work in creative writing at Rice University.
George G. Williams Awards
The Rice Review is a student-run literary journal at Rice University committed to publishing the best prose, poetry, and creative nonfiction. Each year, R2 awards the George G. Williams prizes in the genres of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. The contests are juried by professional, non-Rice-affiliated judges. Each of the student recipients is awarded a monetary prize, as well as recognition in that year's issue.
Fondren Library's Undergraduate Creative Writing Awards
Each spring, Fondren Library accepts entries for their annual Undergraduate Creative Writing Awards. These three $1,000 prizes honor Rice undergraduates who show exceptional literary promise in the genres of Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry. The awards are: the Larry McMurtry Prize in Fiction, the Max Apple Prize in Nonfiction, and the Susan Wood Prize in Poetry. More information about the contest, as well as contest entry forms, can be found here.