Winner of the Stephenson First-Year Writing Prize

Hope College has a plethora of awards given out to students on a regular basis. The English Department alone has the honor of awarding students over ten different types of honors and prizes for showing exemplary skills in literature and creative writing.

One of the awards we recently gave was the “Stephenson First-Year Writing Prize.” Each semester, a committee of faculty judges selects a student author as having submitted the best paper in Hope’s first-year writing course, English 113. Its purpose is to encourage and recognize standout writers. The winner receives recognition at the English Department’s Award Ceremony and a gift certificate to the Hope-Geneva Bookstore.

Professor Regan Postma-Montano introduced this year’s winner, and some insight as to how the winner was selected:

“On behalf of the English Department and the Stephenson Prize Selection Committee, it is my honor to present this year’s award.

The Stephenson prize goes to an outstanding research paper written in English 113, which is selected for its originality, clarity, logic, and quality of research, in addition to its format and style.

This year’s winning paper, ‘Bowing to No One: Black Feminism in Frances E. W. Harper’s “Vashti” and Janelle Monáe’s “Q.U.E.E.N”’, written for Dr. Kendra Parker’s English 113, highlights the use of poetry and song as a tactic for black women to free themselves from social expectations.

The committee was impressed by the articulate writing, thoughtful research, and engaging, unique argument demonstrated in this paper. One member commented on the paper’s ‘strong voice’ that showed ‘a lot of conviction’ and another on the writer’s enthusiasm. Please join me in congratulating Nina Kay for her outstanding paper.”

A copy of Nina Kay’s paper can be found here.
Congratulations, Nina!

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