The Peter J. Theune Memorial Essay Prize
To enter the Peter J. Theune Memorial Essay Prize, students should submit one essay, double-spaced, of no more than 5,000 words (shorter essays are more than acceptable!). Traditional as well as more experimental forms of the essay are welcomed.
Recipients
2024 Winner: Brooke Pacchetti for “New Year, Same Place” and “Paternity Scandal at the Funeral”
Honorable Mention: Van Le for “A Communistic McDonald’s Advertisement”
2023 Winner: MJ Soria, "Grocery Shoppping"
2022 Winner: Nina DeBoni, "My Grievances with Math, As a Concept"
Honorable Mention: Farah Bassyouni, "Tahrir Square: The Story of a Childhood"
2021 Winner: Gabrielle Ghaderi, “Silent Flames: Barcelona after Uprising”
Honorable Mention: Nicole Brennan, "I am an Idiopathic, Not a Crazy Drug Addict”
2020 Winner: Rachel Williams, for her essay "Cancer Can't Take It All"
Honorable Mention: Paraskevi (Vi) Kakares, for her essay “ή E”
2019 Winner: Kathryn Halford, for her essay "Vulnerability in 5 Stages"
2018 Winner: Emily Salomon, for her essay “The Devil’s Playground”
2017 Winner: Mayra Gonzalez for her essay “Assests-Liabilities=Equ[ality]”
Honorable Mention: Vandhana Rajarathnam, for “The Garage”
2016 Winner: Hanna Peterson, for her essay “My Own Way.”
Honorable Mention: Savannah Feher, for “Four Plywood Walls.”
2015 Winner: Olivia Anderson, for her essay, “Blood Tide.”
Honorable Mentions: Olivian Heffernan, for “In the Same Bed,” and Jasmine
Wright, for “As Best He Could.”
2014 Winner: Colleen O’Connor, for her essay, “Darling, It’s Better”
Honorable Mentions: Olivia Anderson and Mack Rivkin
2013 Winner: Sydney White, for her essay, “Hallways and Home”
Honorable Mentions: Savannah Davis and Shane McGowan
Michael Theune - Robert Harrington Endowed Professor of English and Chair of English
Department - English