Department of English
Awards Convocation
2023-2024
Program
Literary Contest Winners
Presented by: Stacey Waite
Graduate Student Winners
Vreeland Award for Poetry
Jackie Chicalese
Vreeland Award for Prose
Ber Anena
Sandoz/Prairie Schooner Awards for Fiction
Kasey Peters
– First Place –
Natalie Evjen
– Second Place –
Kathleen Dillon
– Third Place –
Gaffney/Academy of American Poets Awards for Poetry
Tara Ballard
– First Place –
Nicole Lachat
– Second Place –
Kate Gaskin
– Third Place –
Susan Atefat Peckham Fellowship
Jess Poli
Sunita Jain Award for Excellence in Poetry
Caleb Petersen
Louise Van Sickle Award for Poetry
Kimberly Reyes
Louise Van Sickle Award for Prose
Uche Okonkwo
Hough Teaching Award
Presented by: Julia Schleck
Jess Poli & Tara Ballard
– Creative Writing –
Alexandra Bissell
– Literature –
Keshia Mcclantoc
– Compositon & Rhetoric –
Undergraduate Winners
Presented by: Laura White
Vreeland Award for Poetry
Macy Petersen
Vreeland Award for Fiction
Delaney Lawrence
Marjorie Stover Short Story Awards
Kate Mulloy
– First Place –
Jordan Olsen
– Second Place –
Undergraduate Poetry Awards
August Fritton
– Irby Wood Prize –
Karla Hernandez Torrijos
– First Place Gaffney Prize –
Jess Nguyen
– Second Place Gaffney Prize –
Gaffney Scholarly Essay Award
Cassandra Provost
Gaffney Personal Essay Award
Jordan Harper
Ted Kooser Award for Outstanding First-Year Writing
Katelyn Miller
Instructor: Serenity Dougherty
Presented By: James Brunton
Douglas C. Beckwith Film Studies Excellence Best Essay Award
Naomi Chamberlain
Laurus Awards
Presented by: Jess Poli
Prose
Abigail Cleveland
– First Place –
Noah Hadley
– Second Place –
Cameron Williams
– Third Place –
Poetry
Andres Lopez
– First Place –
August Fritton
– Second Place –
Abigail Cleveland
– Third Place –
Visual Art
Sofie Curto
– First Place –
Abraham Shaecher
– Second Place –
Nima Faunce
– Third Place –
Readings by Graduate Contest Winners
Jackie Chicalese
Vreeland Award for Poetry
Ber Anena
Vreeland Award for Fiction
Undergraduate Awards & Honors
Presented by: Kathleen Lacey
UNL Honors Program Graduates
Robin Emmons
Cassandra Provost
Julia Klug
Canyon Skare
Hannah Huynh
Lillian Young
Emily Blomstedt
Graduations with Distinction
Fall 2023
High Distinction
Grace McConnell
Distinction
Karley Coday
May 2024
Highest Distinction
Cassandra Provost
Abbie Wolfe
Lillian Young
High Distinction
Emily Blomstedt
Landyn Cole
Megan Jerabek
Julia Klug
Alijah Mallula
Kate Mulloy
Katelyn Rossel
Canyon Skare
Olivia Sullivan
Karlie Sunderman
Distinction
Kayleigh Casey
Robin Emmons
Kylie Galvin
Zachery Hunter
Hannah Huynh
Audrey Salber
Chancellor's Scholars
Landyn Cole
Grace McConnell
Katelyn Rossell
Graduating ESAB Mentors
Ashe Franta (1 year)
Hannah Huynh (3 years)
Louie Iannuzzelli (3 years)
Megan Jerabek (3 years)
Julia Klug (1 year)
Canyon Skare (2 years)
Readings by Graduate Contest Winners
Kasey Peters
Sandoz Fiction · First Place
Natalie Evjen
Sandoz Fiction · Second Place
Kathleen Dillon
Sandoz Fiction· Third Place
Faculty Awards & Honors
Presented by: Marco Abel
University Awards & Appointments
Tenure & Promotions
Thomas Gannon (Full Professor)
Peter Capuano (Full Professor)
Adrian Wisnicki (Full Professor)
Ng’ang’a Wahu-Mũchiri (Associate Professor)
Kevin McMullen (Research Associate Professor of Practice)
Susan J. Rosowski Professorship
Annis Chaikin Sorensen Award
College Awards & Appointments
Hazel R. McClymont Distinguished Teaching Fellow Award
College of Arts & Sciences Engagement Award
Faculty Development Fellowships
Stacey Waite
Peter Capuano
Amanda Gailey
Ng’ang’a Wahu-Mũchiri
National & International Awards & Grants
Mellon Foundation Grant: "Gender Unbound: The Counter-Stories Project" ($100,000)
National Endowment for the Humanities Collections and References Resources Grant for "A Digital Library of Willa Cather's Literary Manuscripts" ($303,000)
National Endowment for the Humanities for Higher Education Faculty Grant for "Willa Cather: Place and Archive" ($156,000)
National Endowment for the Humanities Level II Digital Humanities Advancement Grant for the American Women Writers Digital Recovery Hub
Melissa Homestead (Co-Investigator and UNL Co-Project Lead) and Jessica DeSpain (Primary Investigator)National Endowment for the Humanities Grant for "The Late-Life Writings of Walt Whitman" ($300,000)
Kenneth Price and the Walt Whitman Archive
National Historical Publications and Records Commission Grant ($160,000)
National Endowment for the Humanities Grant for "Between the Columns: A Toolkit for Periodical Authorship Attribution and Display" ($150,000)
Kevin McMullen and the Walt Whitman Archive
Poet Laureate of Jamaica
Stubbendieck Great Plains Distinguished Book Prize
Winner of The National Poetry Series Competition for Playing with the Jew (forthcoming with Milkweed Books, Fall 2024)
Readings by Graduate Contest Winners
Tara Ballard
Gaffney/Academy of American Poets · First Place
Nicole Lachat
Gaffney/Academy of American Poets · Second Place
Graduate Student Awards & Honors
Presented by: Stacey Waite
Graduate Fellowship and Award Reciepients
Folsom Distinguished Doctoral Dissertation Award
Ava Winter
Graduate Student Excellence in Mentoring Award
Erika Luckert
May 2024 Graduates
Ph.D.
Avee Chaudhuri (Timothy Schaffert)
Samatha Gilmore (Matt Cohen and Ken Price)
Erika Luckert (Stacey Waite)
Keshia Mcclantoc (Stacey Waite and Rachael Shah)
Zoe McDonald (Stacey Waite)
Anne Nagel (Peter Capuano)
Benjamin Reed (Kelly Stage)
Jonathan Wlodarski (Timothy Schaffert)
M.A.
Hanna Varilek (Stacey Waite)
Syble Heffernan (Stacey Waite)
Elizabeth Lengel (Stacey Waite)
Hannah Morrison (Gabrielle Owen)
Bianca Swift (Hope Wabuke)
Sunday Elliott Uguru (Kwame Dawes)
August 2024 Graduates
Ph.D.
Phillip Howells (Adrian Wisnicki)
Ashlyn Stewart (Ken Price)
Tryphena Yeboah (Kwame Dawes)
M.A.
Shannon Valkr (Kwame Dawes)
Placement News
Ph.D.
Erika Luckert - Tenure-track Assistant Professor of English and Director of Composition, University of Southern Mississippi
Keshia Mcclantoc - Tenure-track Assistant Professor, Southwest Illinois Community College
Zoe McDonald - Tenure-track Assistant Professor, Sam Houston State University
Samantha Gilmore - Digital Archivist, Fisk Library
Tim Meadows - Director and Instructor of the Intensive English Program, University of Arkansas in Fayetteville
M.A.
Sunday Elliott Uguru - Doctoral Program, University of Nebraska- Lincoln
Hannah Morrison - Teaching at Westside High School and working as an adjunct instructor over the summer at Southest Community College
Department Awards
Stuff Fellowships
Kathleen Dillon
Serenity Dougherty
Chinua Ezenwa-Ohaeto
Jess Poli
Alexandra Bissell
John Robinson Award for Scholarly Papers
Syble Heffernan
– First Place –
Instructor: Amelia Montes
Louis Crompton Prize
Syble Heffernan
EGSA Awards
To be announced at and added after the Convocation meeting.
Readings by Graduate Contest Winners
Jess Poli
Susan Atefat Peckham
Books by Faculty & Graduate Students
May 2023 - April 2024
Unbound
Darlington Chibueze Anuonye and Nduka Otiono, eds.
A Kind of Madness
Uche Okonkwo
Cue: Poems
Siwar Masannat
Dicken's Idiomatic Imaginagtion: The Inimitable and Victorian Body Language
On The Digital Humanities
Christian Petzold Interviews
Marco Abel, Aylin Bademsoy, and Jaimey Fisher eds.
The Titanic Survivors Book Club: A Novel
The Oxford Handbook of Walt Whitman
Kenneth Price and Stefan Schöberlein eds.
Little Underworld: A Novel
