Convention AWARDS

Sigma Tau Delta recognized excellence by awarding nearly $15,000 for the best convention submissions at the 2022 Red & Black Convention Awards Luncheon on Friday, April 2, 2022.

Isabel Sparks President’s Awards

Given for the best presentations by active student members at the Sigma Tau Delta International Convention, these awards were established in 1991 by Isabel Sparks, the fifth President of Sigma Tau Delta.

ORIGINAL PROSE

First Place ($600)
Jenae Jordan
Southern New Hampshire University, NH
“Loyalty’s Burden”

Second Place ($400)
Elizabeth Roos
SUNY, College at Geneseo, NY
“Hen Feathers”

Eileen Burnett
University of Houston-Clear Lake, TX
“Periodicos”

Honorable Mention ($100)
Meredith Kent
University of Alabama, AL
“Broken Girl”

Victoria Smith
Gustavus Adolphus College, MN
“Today Feels”

CREATIVE NONFICTION

First Place ($600)
Sydney Bulthuis
Palm Beach Atlantic University, FL
“Digging Up the Dead”

Second Place ($400)
Sarah Pouliot
Palm Beach Atlantic University, FL
“Rock and Paper”

Third Place ($200)
Mary McFadden
Dixie State University, UT
“Go with the Flow”

Honorable Mention ($100)
Alyssa Duvak
Muhlenberg College, PA
“Everything That Glitters / Radiant”

ORIGINAL POETRY

First Place ($600)
Jack Vanchiere
McNeese State University, LA
“After Laurel Gutfetch Ruins Goal Post Day”

Second Place ($400)
Erynne Jamison
Baker University, KS
“Visual Language”

Third Place ($200)
Ryland Reamy
George Fox University, OR
“Changed Things”

Honorable Mention ($100)

Ty Robinson
College of the Ozarks, MO
“African Skeletor”

Sarah Tate
Liberty University, VA
“Humanscapes”

CRITICAL ESSAYS: BRITISH AND WORLD LITERATURE

First Place ($600)
Jessica Kieffer
Palm Beach Atlantic University, FL
“Power of the Pen: Behn’s Appropriation of Oroonoko”

Second Place ($400)
Gwyneth Walker
University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN
“Performative Anatomy in The Duchess of Malfi”

Third Place ($200)
Caelan Elliott
Baylor University, TX
“Community and the Capacity to Connect”

Honorable Mention ($100)
Cassidy Jones
Louisiana Tech University, LA
“Beyond Ad Absurdum”

CRITICAL ESSAYS: AMERICAN LITERATURE

First Place ($600)
Darrin Ross
Western Illinois University, IL
“Race and Queerness in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter”

Second Place ($400)
Kayley Ulmer
Berry College, GA
“Redirecting Myths of the Underground Railroad”

Caylee Weintraub
Florida Gulf Coast University, FL
“Subversive Objects in Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying”

Honorable Mention ($100)
Madeline Talbot
The College of New Jersey, NJ
“Witches in S.T.E.M.”

CRITICAL ESSAYS: OTHER

First Place ($600)
Vanessa Llewellyn
Duquesne University, PA
“Liturgical Linguistics”

Second Place ($400)
Haley Wheat
East Texas Baptist University, TX
“The Body Under Attack in Dr. Strangelove”

Third Place ($200)
Kira Schukar
Macalester College, MN
“Empty Rooms & Blank Spaces: The Marginal Archive”

Honorable Mention ($100)
Grey Nebel
University of North Geogia, Gainesville, GA
“Translingual Pedagogy in the English Classroom”

COMMON READER: Dear Martin by Nic Stone

First Place ($600)
Emma Thomas
Pepperdine University, CA
“My Dear, Josephine”

Second Place ($400)
Isabella Jones
Slippery Rock University, PA
“Memoir of a Mulatto Girl”

Third Place ($200)
Cassandra Cole
University of Oregon, OR
“I Am American*”

WORLD AND MULTI-CULTURAL

First Place ($600)
Anna McIntyre
Palm Beach Atlantic University, FL
“Reading Music in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Nocturnes”

Second Place ($400)
Noah Isherwood
Berry College, GA
“Great Planes: Hybridity and Meta-Location”

Third Place ($200)
Molly Henschke
Fordham University, NY
“Intrusive Blackness in Soul Gone Home and Fairview”

Honorable Mention ($100)
Briley Wyckoff
Dixie State University, UT
“Names and Identity in Bharati Mukherjee’s Jasmine”

Beth DeMeo Poetry Award

This award is given yearly to honor excellence in convention presentations for “Critical Work on Poetry or a Poet.” Beth DeMeo was an active member of the Sigma Tau Delta organization, having served as a chapter sponsor, Eastern Regent, and President of Sigma Tau Delta. Over her many dedicated years of service, Beth planned and hosted several annual conventions. Additionally, she continued to serve on committees and always participated in judging convention submissions. In particular, Beth enjoyed being part of the small group who ranked the student submissions that were eligible for convention awards, particularly in poetry. Beth was both a lover of poetry and an accomplished poet herself. It is fitting to celebrate her life and her commitment to our group by presenting this annual convention award in her memory.  

First Place ($600)
Grace Gault
Muhlenberg College, PA
“H.D.’s Sea Garden: Revisiting the Hortus Conclusus”

Second Place ($400)
Natalie Marroquin
University of North Georgia, Gainesville, GA
“Whitman’s Queer Identity in Leaves of Grass”

Third Place ($200)
Tara Heimberger
Georgia College & State University, GA
“Millay: Female Sexuality and Canonical Limitation”

Honorable Mention ($100)
Carly Burgio
SUNY, College at Geneseo, NY
“Redefining the Image of Emily Dickinson”

Stemmler/Dennis LGBT& Award

Sigma Tau Deltans Kevin Stemmler and Larry Dennis are sponsoring the Stemmler/Dennis LGBT& Award to be given annually for outstanding convention work representing or celebrating the LGBT community and its literary contributions.  The award acknowledges the variety of voices that have too often been ignored in scholarship and in creative work.  In addition to providing representation for our society’s membership, the award compensates for the historical lack of LGBT recognition, specifically in academic settings.  

First Place ($400)
E Kerr
University of Scranton, PA
“Queering Trauma: Trans-poetics by a trans poet”

Second Place ($300)
Hannah Paczkowski
Drew University, NJ
“Notes on Repression”

Third Place ($200)
Joseph Shoulders
Western Kentucky University, KY
“Proto-Homosexuality in The Epic of Gilgamesh”

Honorable Mention ($100)
Maddie Henry
Valparaiso University, IN
“Queer Midsummer: Reallocating Lines for Liberation”

Other Convention Awards

Sigma Tau Delta values creative and scholarly contributions that represent diversity of abilities, races, and creeds, and we present special awards for the best among these submissions. Sigma Kappa Delta (our sister organization at two-year schools) and Alumni Epsilon (the alumni chapter of Sigma Tau Delta) also reward excellent submissions by their members.

Beyond convention submissions, the organization also gives prizes for “Outstanding Chapter Displays” (posters displayed and judged during Convention).

ALUMNI AWARDS – CRITICAL

First Place ($300)
Rachel Boland
“Cyclical Violence of American Short Stories”

Second Place ($200)
Rebekah Brown
“Leave It to Psmith: Post-War Novel without the War’”

Third Place ($100)
Hannah Kahn
“Lips Don’t Lie: A Criticism of ‘Winter Dreams’”

ALUMNI AWARDS – CREATIVE

First Place ($300)
Emiliya Mailyan
“Pogroms & Pakhlava”

Second Place ($200)
Erika Girard
“So They Say”

Third Place ($100)
Megan Hutchinson
“Cat Head Biscuits & Other Poems”

Honorable Mention ($75)
Benjamin Johnson
“’Papa’s Boy”

OUTSTANDING CHAPTER DISPLAY AWARDS

First Place ($100)
Alpha Upsilon Phi Chapter
University of North Georgia, Gainesville, GA

Honorable Mention ($50)
Alpha Psi Nu Chapter
The University of Texas at Dallas, TX

Honorable Mention ($50)
Alpha Epsilon Alpha Chapter
The College of New Jersey, NJ