Student Literary Prizes
Each year the Cadigan Prize for Younger Writers and the Julia Fonville Smithson Memorial Prize award Bucknell undergraduates for extraordinary poetry and prose.
Cadigan Prize for Younger Writers
The Cadigan Prize for Younger Writers is judged each year by recent contributors to West Branch, Bucknell's professional literary journal, and recognizes outstanding works of poetry and prose by Bucknell undergraduates. First and second place prizes, as well as honorable mentions, are awarded in each of two genres: prose, which includes both fiction and creative nonfiction and poetry. The awards are made possible by the generous support of Robb '86 and Joan Daughen Cadigan '86.
2024-25 Judges
The Cadigan Prize judges for 2024-25 are recent West Branch contributors JoAnna Novak and Jasmine Khaliq.
Prose judge JoAnna Novak is the author of memoir Contradiction Days: A Writer on the Verge of Motherhood. Her short story collection Meaningful Work won the Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Contest and was published by FC2. She is the author of the novel I Must Have You and three books of poetry: New Life; Abeyance, North America and Noirmania. Her fourth book of poetry, DOMESTIREXIA, is forthcoming from Soft Skull Press in 2024.
Poetry judge Jasmine Khaliq is a Pakistani-Mexican poet born and raised in Northern California. Her work is found or forthcoming in Best New Poets 2023, Poetry Northwest, Black Warrior Review, The Pinch, Poet Lore, The Rumpus, Bennington Review and elsewhere.
Submitting Your Work
The Submission deadline for the 2024-25 Cadigan Prizes is Dec. 11, 2024. Winners are announced in January on Bucknell's Message Center. Winners will be invited to read their work at the annual student reading in April.
2023–24 Winners
Prose Winners
- First Place: Matthew Paddock
- Second Place: Kim Hernandez
Poetry Winners
- First Place: Lyndon-James Beier
- Second Place: Rebecca Heintzelman
- Honorable Mention: Sarah Sanfield
Julia Fonville Smithson Memorial Prize
On May 13, 1977, at the age of 23, Julia Smithson '76 died of injuries sustained in an automobile accident. A Bucknell graduate with a major in English, Julia was married to Lowell W. Fritz '76. She was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Guy Smithson, Jr., of Knoxville, Tenn. Donations made to a fund to perpetuate her memory have enabled the Department of English to establish the Julia Fonville Smithson Memorial Prize, to be awarded annually to students whose dedication to the sharing and the making of literature carries into the future the spirit of Julia Smithson.
Judges
The winning manuscripts are selected each year by a committee composed of faculty in the Creative Writing Program of the Department of English. The Smithson Prize is administered by the Creative Writing Program.
2023-24 Smithson Prize Winners
- Amber Cutler
- Natasha Rawls
Annual Student Reading
Each year the annual student reading in April gathers the winners of the Cadigan Prizes for Younger Writers and the Julia Fonville Smithson Memorial Prize for a formal reading in Bucknell Hall.