OTHER CONTESTS

In addition to the Graduate and Undergraduate Hopwood Contest, a Summer Hopwood Contest (open only to students who take writing courses during the Spring or Summer terms) and a Hopwood Underclassmen Contest (open to first and second-year students who are enrolled in writing courses) are offered. Bulletins may be obtained in the Hopwood Room.

The Hopwood Program also administers three fellowship competitions and five poetry contests, sponsored by the Department of English.

The Roy W. Cowden Memorial Fellowship is an award made on the basis of demonstrated writing talent and financial need. The fellowship is in honor of Professor Cowden, who was the Director of the Hopwood Prize Program from 1933 to 1952.   Awards range from $500 to $1,750.  Nominations and applications may be made to the Cowden Committee.

The Kasdan Scholarship in Creative Writing is a tuition award of at least $4,500 made in the category of screenplays or drama. The competition is open to undergraduate and graduate students. The scholarship was made possible by a grant from University of Michigan graduates Lawrence and Meg Kasdan.

The Arthur Miller Award of the University of Michigan Club of New York Scholarship Fund is an award of $2,000 to be used for educational expenses at the University of Michigan. The competition is open to sophomores and juniors who have demonstrated writing talent in the areas of drama, screenplay, fiction, or poetry.

The Bain-Swiggett Prize, an award of $400 for the best poem in traditional form by a University of Michigan student. "Traditional form" has been interpreted to mean metered, but not necessarily rhymed verse.

The Michael R.Gutterman Awards, a first prize of $350 and a second prize of $250, are awarded annually from funds contributed by Mr. and Mrs. Robert E. Gutterman as a memorial to their son. The terms of the bequest stipulate that the prize poems "shall exemplify the new, the unusual, and the radical."

The Academy of American Poets Prizes are two awards of $100 for the best poem or poems submitted by an undergraduate and a graduate student at the University of Michigan. Mrs. Sharon A. Galley endowed the prizes in memory of her late husband, David Galley.

The Jeffrey L. Weisberg Memorial Prize, a first prize award of $500 and a second prize award of $400 for the best poems submitted by freshmen or sophomores, was established in honor of Jeffrey L. Weisberg by his family and friends.

The Marjorie Rapaport Award in Poetry, a first prize of $350 and a second prize of $250 offered as a memorial to her daughter Marjorie by Mrs. Phyllis Rapaport. The terms of the gift also stipulate that the prize poems "shall exemplify the new, the unusual, and the radical."

The Hopwood Award Theodore Roethke Prize, an award of $5,000 for the best long poem of poetic sequence written by a University of Michigan student.

The deadline for the Bain-Swiggett, Gutterman, Weisberg, Roethke, the Academy of American Poets Contest, and for the Cowden Fellowship Contest is the first Wednesday in December, and the prizes, with the exception of the Roethke Prize, are awarded in January in conjunction with the Hopwood Underclassmen Awards. The deadline for the Kasdan and Miller Scholarships is the last Wednesday in January. These prizes and the Roethke Prize are awarded in the April Hopwood Awards Ceremony. The deadline for the Rapaport contest is the same as for the Summer Hopwood Contest, and the prize is awarded in September in conjunction with the Summer Hopwood Awards. Ask the staff in the Hopwood Room or check this website for details on all these contests.