Scholarships & Awards
The English Department offers several monetary awards for student writing.
The following are available to English majors during each academic year. Awards are made in late spring for the following academic year. Read carefully, as the requirements for each award may differ.
Scholarship & Award Guidelines
All contests are limited to one entry per student. Unless otherwise noted, all submissions should include a cover sheet that includes the contest name, the student's name, student ID number, student address, and the title of the entry. Because submissions will be read blindly, you should not include your name or any identifying information on the submission itself.
When submitting, students should email their submissions to our Office Manager; in the subject line of your email, please indicate the name of the writing contest to which you're submitting.
Contests for the 2023–24 academic year will open in the spring.
Awards & Scholarships
Type: Scholarship
Amount: Minimum $750 per academic year
Purpose: To provide tuition grants to sophomore or junior students majoring in English at the ÌÀÄ·ÊÓƵ.
Type: Scholarship
Amount: Minimum $1,000 per academic year
Purpose: To provide scholarships for graduate students majoring in creative writing at the ÌÀÄ·ÊÓƵ.
Type: Scholarship
Amount: Minimum $500 per academic year, award in spring semester
Purpose: To provide scholarships for undergraduate students in any field of study enrolled in a creative writing class at the ÌÀÄ·ÊÓƵ.
Category: essay
Eligibility: UAF freshman undergraduate students
Category: one short story or novel chapter
Eligibility: UAF undergraduate students
Category: nonfiction personal essay or journal entries
Eligibility: UAF undergraduate and graduate students
Category: set of three poems
Eligibility: UAF undergraduate students
Category: set of three poems
Eligibility: UAF graduate students
Type: Student Award
Category: critical essay or literary analysis
Eligibility: UAF undergraduate and graduate students
Criteria: critical paper written in an upper-division or graduate level literary course at UAF. Writing can be from the Spring, Summer, or Fall 2023 or Spring 2024.
Type: Student Award
Amount: Minimum $500 per academic year
Purpose: The English Emeriti Award will be awarded each year to the Outstanding English Major,
as voted on by Department faculty members in the spring semester. The intent is that
this award should be no less than $500, and larger if the fund is able to support
a larger award. The amount of the award is determined by the English Department Chair
in consultation with the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts.
The English Emeriti Award is established in honor of retired professors who have taught
English at UAF and been awarded Emeritus status in recognition of their achievements
and years of service.
Type: Student Award
Purpose: To provide an award to a UAF Student for creative writing in a broad Alaska field.
Category: fiction or nonfiction writing
Eligibility: all students enrolled within the University of Alaska system
note: submissions should not exceed 30 double-spaced pages
Type: Scholarship, Student Award
Amount: Minimum $200 per academic year, See agreement & revisions
Purpose: To provide the Minnie E. Wells Award in Literary Criticism, an award based upon an essay written by a student (majoring in any field) for an upper division literature course at UAF in the Department of English; and to provide the Minnie E. Wells Scholarship in English Literature, for students pursuing a BA in English with an emphasis in literature at the ÌÀÄ·ÊÓƵ.
Minnie E. Wells Award in Literary Criticism
Category: critical essay or literary analysis
Eligibility: UAF undergraduate students who have not yet earned a Bachelor's Degree
Criteria: essays written during Spring, Summer, or Fall 2023 or Spring 2024. Submissions are
limited to work produced in upper-division or graduate-level literature courses offered
by the UAF Department of English.
note: in addition to the other elements noted above, students' cover sheets should state the name of the course for which the paper was written.
CLA has been the beneficiary of some truly generous gifts from alumni, friends, former professors and staff and other donors. The College of Liberal Arts has many scholarships to offer, from department-specific to college-wide. Why don't you see if there's another here for you?
Ready to apply for scholarships?