Contests & Awards

Academy of American Poets College and University Prize

The Academy of American College Poets Prize is one of the nation's oldest poetry organizations. Many of our nation’s finest poets received this prestigious award early in their literary careers. Among them: Diane Ackerman, Toi Derricotte, Mark Doty, Jorie Graham, Kimiko Hahn, Joy Harjo, Robert Hass, Li-Young Lee, J. D. McClatchy, Robert Pinsky, Sylvia Plath, Mark Strand, Ocean Vuong, and Charles Wright.

The Academy of American Poets Prize is administered yearly by the Writing Department in partnership with Loyola’s Center for the Humanities and the Academy of American Poets. 

2026 Winner

Catarina Broccolino 

2026 Honorable Mention

Daniel Gaughan

Fiction/Non-Fiction Prose Contest

The Writing Department recognizes the best in student fiction and non-fiction. It awards the student who writes the best essay or the best short story within an upper division (300 or higher) departmental course.

Fiction Winner 2026

Alex Preusser 

Non-Fiction Winner 2026

Colleen Grennan 

Rhetoric Contest

The Writing Department recognizes the best in student rhetorical composition originally produced for 200, 300, or 400- level writing classes at Loyola. There are three categories of submission: analysis, persuasion, and digital/multimodal/visual. 

Analysis Winner 2026

Colleen Grennan

PersuasionWinner 2026

Caroline Westervelt