Sigma Tau Delta values creative and scholarly contributions that represent diversity of abilities, races, and identities, and we present special awards for the best among these submissions. Sigma Tau Delta also awards Alumni papers, and Sigma Kappa Delta (our sister organization at two-year schools) also rewards excellent submissions by their members. We recognized excellence by awarding over $17,000 for the best convention submissions at the 2025 Awards Ceremony.
Isabel Sparks President’s Awards
Given for the best presentations by active student members at the Sigma Tau Delta Centennial Convention, these awards were established in 1991 by Isabel Sparks, the fifth President of Sigma Tau Delta. Awards are given to both creative and critical papers across all submission categories. Awards are always given for creative and critical papers about the 2025 Common Reader When My Brother Was an Aztec by Natalie Diaz.
Original Prose
First Place ($500)
Abby Morgan
University of Oregon
“Candy House”
Second Place ($300)
Austin Dabney
Fisher College
“The Motley Girl”
Third Place ($200)
Kiara Braden
California State University, Northridge
Excerpt of “Quince”
Honorable Mention ($100)
Mo Blackwood
Rhode Island College
“Doll Parts”
Creative Nonfiction
First Place ($500)
Melinda Mullet
Whitworth University
“Iconography—Holy Mothers”
Second Place ($300)
Alexandria Bournonville
Northern Michigan University
“Works, Rats, Frogs, Spiders”
Third Place ($200)
Lillian Giddings
The University of Iowa
“Poisoning”
Honorable Mention ($100)
Darby Shelton
Florida State University
“The Passage”
Original Poetry
First Place ($500)
Elisa Vigil
Whitworth University
“Their Children Who Ran Across the Earth”
Second Place ($300)
Paris Woodward-Ganz
University of Oregon
“What the Rubble Remembers”
Third Place ($200)
Audrey Luffman
Baker University
“Renaissance”
Honorable Mention ($100)
Madeline Riske
The University of Iowa
“The Bestiary for What We Bury”
Critical Essays: American Literature
First Place ($500)
Laci Burton
Stony Brook University
“Hear the Music: Queering Baldwin’s ‘Sonny’s Blues'”
First Place ($500)
Owen Gornicki
Alma College
“Shirley Jackson, Psychoanalysis, and Subversion”
Third Place ($200)
Maggie Machado
The College of New Jersey
“An Image of Indigeneity: Orientalism in Moby-Dick”
Honorable Mention ($100)
Annison Harhay
University of Oregon
“‘I—made this Jar’: Exploring David Drake’s Poetry”
Critical Essays: British Literature
First Place ($500)
Isaiah Russell
Fort Hays State University
“Setting and Subjectivity in A Pale View of Hills”
Second Place ($300)
Rylee Schmidt
Oklahoma Christian University
“’Quenchless Fire’: Rhetoric, Religion, and Empire in Jane Eyre”
Third Place ($200)
Emily Housley
University of Oregon
“The New Woman: Displacing the Centrality of Marriage”
Honorable Mention ($100)
Theodore Lopata
University of North Georgia, Gainesville
“Nature’s Infidel and Industry’s Thrall: Social Commentaries in Orlando’s Narrative Structure”
Sam Barnhart
College of Charleston
“A Poetics of Abundance: ‘And’ as a Generative Labor of Language in Milton’s Paradise Lost“
Critical Essays: Pedagogy and Linguistics
First Place ($500)
Valerie Rosqueta
Saint Louis University
“Dismantling the Writing Center”
Second Place ($300)
Oliver Stirland
Southern Utah University
“Ervin Bossányi’s Religious Multiculturalism as an Antithesis to Fascist Rhetoric”
Haley Hansen
Coastal Carolina University
“From the Kitchens of Lords to Pinterest Boards: An Examination of Recipe Discourse”
Rylee Davidson
Coastal Carolina University
“Love on Alien Frontiers”
Critical Essays: World & Young Adult Literature
First Place ($500)
Elizabeth Buchan
Slippery Rock University
“The Lion and the Lamb: Constructions of Gender in Stephanie Meyer’s Life and Death”
Second Place ($300)
Emma Diamond
The College of New Jersey
“Anthropocentric Anthropomorphism in Children’s Lit”
Third Place ($200)
Danielle Richard
University of Oregon
“Black Motherhood and Fungibility in Jordan Peele’s Us”
Honorable Mention ($100)
Nicole Hirt
Palm Beach Atlantic University
“Through the Lens of Uncanny Fantasy: Childhood and Genre in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Coraline”
Common Reader
First Place ($500)
Nash Porter
Park University
“Exploring the ‘Not-Knowing’ in Diaz’s ‘Amaranth Gates'”
Second Place ($300)
Kaysyn Jones
Florida State University
“I Saw Houses Down South”
Third Place ($200)
Marcus Tsai
The University of Texas at Dallas
“Family Tree”
Honorable Mention ($100)
Lauren Farrell
The College of New Jersey
“The Dismembered Body and Generational Trauma”
Judson Q. Owen Convention Awards
Each year, these awards recognize critical essays and creative works by active students and alumni writing on the convention theme; this year’s theme is One of Us. The monetary prizes are given in honor of Judson Q. Owen, the first National Secretary of Sigma Tau Delta.
Convention Theme
First Place ($500)
Kiran Bains Sahota
The University of Texas at Dallas
“Fly”
Second Place ($300)
Carmen Lok
Southern Arkansas University
“What It Means To Be Chinese”
Marcus Tsai
The University of Texas at Dallas
“Person Who Leaves”
Honorable Mention ($100)
Charlie Dorlon
Chatham University
“Jackie’s Lips”
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 Sigma Tau Delta, having served as a Chapter Advisor, 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, especially 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 ($500)
Madison Luc
Pepperdine University
“Hester Pulter’s Voicing of Grief Through Community”
Second Place ($300)
Britney Huntley
Shepherd University
“Fear, Anxiety, and Dickinson’s Dashes”
Third Place ($200)
Hannah Tinsman
Shepherd University
“‘Pearl’ or ‘Weed’: Dickinson Explores Wifehood”
Heather Gilman
Shepherd University
“Dickinson, Fairies, and Belief Beyond the Veil”
Stemmler/Dennis LGBT& Awards
Sigma Tau Deltans Kevin Stemmler and Larry Dennis are sponsoring the Stemmler/Dennis LGBT& Awards 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.
Creative Works
First Place ($500)
Isabella Hardin
University of Kentucky
“Black Que(e)ries”
Second Place ($300)
Alex Moran
Florida State University
“Becoming One of Yours”
Third Place ($200)
Angelica Goins
Midwestern State University
“I Have Always Been Afraid of the Dark”
Honorable Mention ($100)
Erin O’Donnell
Northern Michigan University
“Dive Bar Daguerreotype”
Meredith Stafford
Berry College
“Dyking Around”
Critical Essays
First Place ($500)
Joelle DuFault
The College of New Jersey
“The Haunting of Gender and Sexuality in Rebecca”
Second Place ($300)
Allison Harmon
Lamar University
“To Be ‘An Unspeakable of the Oscar Wilde Sort’: An Analysis into the Impact of Dorian Gray on Maurice“
Third Place ($200)
Connor Swauger
Lamar University
“The Folly of Manhood”
Honorable Mention ($100)
James Carlton
University of Oregon
“The Winter of Sex”
LULAC Awards
Sigma Tau Delta, through our partnership with the League of United Latin American Citizens, is dedicated to honoring works that reflect Hispanic and Latino heritage. The LULAC Awards recognize any work containing Hispanic or Latino/a/e themes.
First Place ($550*)
Elena Vigil
Whitworth University
“Given Thirty-One Minutes”
*Elena’s work also placed in Creative Nonfiction
Second Place ($350*)
Marley Ramon
Mercyhurst University
“First Final Thoughts”
*Marley’s work also placed in Original Poetry
Third Place ($200)
Chanel Hoyos
Palm Beach Atlantic
“Under My Peruvian Skin”
Honorable Mention ($100)
William Saccavino
University of North Georgia, Gainesville
“Literal Consumerism: Barthesian Mythology in Tender Is the Flesh”
Willa Cather Foundation Awards
The Willa Cather Foundation has partnered with Sigma Tau Delta to create an award for works focusing on our Spotlight Author, Willa Cather. This award not only provides cash prizes but also gives the top submission the chance to be published in the renowned Willa Cather Review, a significant opportunity for aspiring writers.
First Place ($550*)
Mary Atkins
University of Dallas
“Building for the Future: Architectural Beauty in Father Latour’s Cathedral”
*Mary’s work also placed in the Alumni category
Second Place ($300)
Autumn Koors-Foltz
Colorado State University
“in this archetype, i am the lighthouse”
Third Place ($200)
Hannah Merritt
Collin County Community College
“Finding Place in Santa Fe”
Honorable Mention ($100)
Halle Kibben
Palm Beach Atlantic University
“Foster Reader”
Other Convention Awards
Alumni Awards
Critical Essays ($250)
Abigail Jones
Houston Christian University
“Maids and Cuckolds in Much Ado About Nothing”
Creative Works ($250)
Elias Kerr
The University of Scranton
“trans [re]conciliation”
Sigma Kappa Delta ($250)
Devan Compton
Calhoun Community College
“I Am a Black Man”
Chapter Displays
Beyond convention submissions, Sigma Tau Delta also gives prizes for “Outstanding Chapter Displays” (posters displayed and judged during Convention).
First Place ($100)
Duquesne University
Second Place ($75)
Sam Houston State University
Third Place ($50)
The University of Texas at Dallas