I. Welcome
II. Literary Contest Winners
Reading:
Kassandra Miligan
Ian Maxton
III. Undergraduate Awards & Honors
Reading:
Kasey Peters
Folasade John
IV. Faculty Awards & Honors
Reading:
Lydia Abedeen
Kylie Rowland
V. Graduate Student Awards & Honors
Reading:
Ber Anena
VI. Books by Faculty & Graduate Students
VII. Concluding Remarks
Literary Contest Winners
Vreeland Awards
Vreeland Award for Poetry
Kassandra Milligan
Vreeland Award for Prose
Ian Maxton
Mari Sandoz/Prairie Schooner Awards for Fiction
Kasey Peters
- FIRST PLACE -
Jackie Chicalese
- SECOND PLACE -
Folasade John
- THIRD PLACE -
Gaffney/Academy of American Poets Awards for Poetry
Lydia Abedeen
- FIRST PLACE -
Maliq Rasaq
- SECOND PLACE -
Kimberly Reyes
- THIRD PLACE -
Louise Van Sickle Awards
Louise Van Sickle Award for Poetry
Alina Nguyễn
Louise Van Sickle Award for Prose
Caroliena Cabada
Susan Atefat Peckham Fellowship
Ber Anena
Sunita Jain Award for Excellence in Poetry
Tara Ballard
Ervin Krause Freedom of Expression Fellowship
Blake Kinnett
Vreeland Awards
Vreeland Award for Poetry
Andrés López
Vreeland Award for Fiction
Edison Geiler
Marjorie Stover Short Story Awards
Charlie Steeves
- FIRST PLACE -
Elias Hunt
- SECOND PLACE -
Undergraduate Poetry Awards
Jaiden Roberts
- IRBY WOOD PRIZE -
Shelby March
- FIRST PLACE GAFFNEY PRIZE -
Mathew Chilcott
- SECOND PLACE GAFFNEY PRIZE -
Wilbur Gaffney Awards
Wilbur Gaffney Scholarly/Critical Essay Award
Jesse Nguyen
Wilbur Gaffney Personal/Creative Non-Fiction Essay Award
Emaline Bockoven
Ted Kooser Award for Outstanding First-Year Writers
Alexander Wagner
NOMINATED BY: Hanna Varilek
Douglas C Beckwith Film Studies Excellence Best Essay Award
Presented by: James Brunton
Addie Eskens
Laurus Awards
Presented by: Kasey Peters
Prose
FIRST PLACE
- Raenie Nielsen
SECOND PLACE
- Alexia Woodall
THIRD PLACE
- Zahraa Fanharawi
Poetry
FIRST PLACE
- Jesse Nguyen
SECOND PLACE
- Raenie Nielsen
THIRD PLACE
- August Fritton
Visual Art
FIRST PLACE
- Lena Black
SECOND PLACE
- Jordan Lockert
THIRD PLACE
- Sullivan Johnson
UNL Honors Program Graduates
- Gage Kircher
- Molly Nowak
- Sarah Ellison
- Rowan Havranek
- Sophie Anderson
- Ashleigh Jay
Graduations With Distinction
Highest Distinction
- Sophie Anderson
- Rowen Havranek
- Ashleigh Jay
High Distinction
- Grayce Baustert
- Sarah Danielson
- Madelyn Davenport
- Sarah Ellison
- Brandon Faulkner
- Molly Nowak
- Angelina Pattavina
Distinction
- Abigail Heerspink
- Jordan Olsen
- Alexia Woodall
Chancellor's Scholars
- Sophie Anderson (ENGL)
- Sarah Ellison (ENGL)
Graduating ESAB Mentors
- Rem Watts (FILM) - 3 years
- Haily Brundage (ENGL) - 3 years
- Jessica Dunn (ENGL) - 1 year
- Brandon Faulkner (ENGL & FILM) - 2 years
- Harvey Wiersma (ENGL) - 1 year
Department Awards
Hough Teaching Award
Presented by: Julia Schleck
Caterina Bernardini
- LECTURER -
University Awards & Appointments
Tenure & Promotions
- Gabrielle Owen - Promoted to Associate Professor
- Stephen Ramsay - Promoted to Full Professor
- Rachel Azima - Promoted to Full Professor of Practice
College Awards & Appointments
College Distinguished Teaching Award
- Gabrielle Owen
College Mentoring Award
- Kathleen Lacey
College Outstanding Research and Creative Activities Award (ORCA) in the Humanities
- Peter Capuano
Hazel R. McCymont Distinguished Teaching Fellow Award
- Laura White
Faculty Development Fellowships
- Gabrielle Owen
- Kelly Stage
- Marco Abel
- Joy Castro
National & International Awards & Grants
African Studies Association's 2024 Bethwell A. Ogot Book
Prize Winner for, Writing on the Soil: Land and Landscape
in Literature from Eastern and South Africa
- Ng'ang'a Wahu-Mũchiri
2024 Stubbendieck Great Plains Distinguished Book Prize
for, Birding While Indian: A Mixed Blood Memoir
- Tom Gannon
American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship
- Ng'ang'a Wahu-Mũchiri
American Academy of Arts & Sciences
- Kwame Dawes, George W. Holmes Emeritus Professor of English (and Professor of Literary Arts, Brown)
May 2025 Graduates
PH.D. Advisor
- Chaun Ballard Kwame Dawes
- Tara Ballard Kwame Dawes
- Nicole Lachat Kwame Dawes
- Uchechukwu Okonkwo Timothy Schaffert
- Jessica Poli Kwame Dawes
- Kimberly Reyes Kwame Dawes
M.A. Advisor
- Karie Cobb Kenneth Price
- Vida Davidovic Stephen Buhler & Timothy Schaffert
- Gwendolyn Klinkey Gabrielle Owen
- Alec Miller Laura White
- Lauren Milhorn Kwakiutl Dreher & Jeannette Jones
- Amanda Peterson Shari Stenberg
- Darian Wilson Gabrielle Owen
- Marcus Woodman Stacey Waite
August 2025 Graduates
PH.D. Advisor
- Katherine Gaskin Stacey Waite
- Tom Knoblauch Marco Abel
- Zainab Omaki Joy Castro
- Matthew Whitaker Rachael Shah
Graduate Fellowship and Award Recipients
Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant Award
Kathleen Dillon
Hough Teaching Award
Presented by: Julia Schleck
Blake Kinnett
- CREATIVE WRITING -
April Bayer
- LITERATURE -
Serenity Dougherty
- COMPOSITION & RHETORIC -
Placement News
PH.D.
- Uchechukwu Okonkwo - Tenure-track Assistant Professor of Creative Writing, Oberlin College
- Jessica Poli - Managing Editor of the Prairie Schooner
- Kimberly Reyes - Tenure-track Assistant Professor of Creative Writing, University of Miami
- Katherine Gaskin - Assistant Poetry Editor, Texas Review Press, and Director of The Adroit Journal's Summer Mentorship Program
- Tom Knoblauch - Continuing as teacher at Millard North High School
- Matthew Whitaker - Lecturer and Director of the Writing Center, Utah State University
- Benjamin Reed - Associate Director of the Writing Center, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
- Mark Houston - Assistant Professor of Public and Community Engaged Writing, the University of Tennessee Chattanooga
M.A.
- Gwendolyn Klinkey - Proposal Writer for Mechdyne, an IT/AV company in Napervile, IL
- Darian Wilson - Doctoral Program, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
- Marcus Woodman - Doctoral Program in Rhetoric and Scientific & Technical Writing, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
- Amanda Peterson - Doctoral Program in Composition and Rhetoric, Texas Christian University
Department Awards
Stuff Fellowships
- Ber Anena
- Ian Maxton
John Robinson Award for Scholarly Papers
Kylie Rowland
"Quiet Collaboration: A Nonvocal, Embodied, and Accessible Break from Collaboration as 'Talk'"
- WINNER-
Nominated by: Dr. Rachael Shah
Peter Wilson
"The West's Translation of the American South: Western Regionalism, Owen Wister, and the Question of Southern Inheritance in Willa Cather's 'Old Mrs. Harris'"
- HONORABLE MENTION -
Nominated by: Dr. Melissa Homestead
Louis Crompton Prize
Chibueze Darlington Anuonye
"The Audacity of Fourth-Generation Nigerian Poets Queering on Facebook"
- WINNER -
Blake Kinnett
"When Whiteness Goes Wrong: The Psychobilly and the (Sub)urban Imagination"
- HONORABLE MENTION -
EGSA Award Winners
Presented by: Arka Maitra
Excellence in Teaching Award (MA Student)
Amanda Peterson
Excellence in Teaching Award (Ph.D. Student)
Lydia Abedeen
Outstanding Service Award
Kasey Peters
Star Professor Award
Adrian Wisnicki