Program
Welcome
Debbie Minter
Literary Contest Winners
Vreeland Awards
Vreeland Award for Poetry
Abraham Ali
Vreeland Award for Prose
Kasey Peters
Mari Sandoz/Prairie Schooner Awards for Fiction
Travis Cohen Acosta
FIRST PLACE
Lydia Abedeen
SECOND PLACE
Jide Omojarabi
THIRD PLACE
Gaffney/Academy of American Poets Awards for Poetry
Alina Nguyễn
FIRST PLACE
Chinụa Ezenwa-Ọhaeto
SECOND PLACE
Rowan Havranek
THIRD PLACE
Louise Van Sickle Awards
Louise Van Sickle Award for Poetry
JC Andrews
Louise Van Sickle Award for Prose
Ian Maxton
Susan Atefat Peckham Fellowship
Caroliena Cabada
Sunita Jain Award for Excellence in Poetry
Malik Rasaq
Ervin Krause Freedom of Expression Fellowship
Manasseh Awuni
Vreeland Awards
Vreeland Award for Poetry
Lilliane Roberts
Vreeland Award for Fiction
Haley Grams
Marjorie Stover Short Story Awards
Cole Oie
FIRST PLACE
Olivia Achtemeier
SECOND PLACE
Undergraduate Poetry Awards
Elias Hunt
IRBY WOOD PRIZE
Coralie Whitney
FIRST PLACE GAFFNEY PRIZE
Nima Faunce
SECOND PLACE GAFFNEY PRIZE
Wilbur Gaffney Awards
Wilbur Gaffney Scholarly/Critical Essay Award
Kaitlyn Peterson
Wilbur Gaffney Personal /Creative Non-Fiction Essay Award
Mathew Chillcott
Ted Kooser Award for Outstanding First-Year Writers
Jeremy Diaz Lopez - "Half Known, Medio Entendido"
NOMINATED BY: Elva Moreno Del Rio
Douglas C. Beckwith Film Studies Excellence Best Essay Award
Zachary Hickman
Brayden Adcock
Laurus Awards
Presented by : Kasey Peters
Prose
FIRST PLACE
Elias Hunt - "Grass Fairy Rose Crane"
SECOND PLACE
Stephen Exon - "Smok Tatrzański "
THIRD PLACE
Deja'nae Smith - "Feathers"
Poetry
FIRST PLACE
Zakaria Rab - "Salat of Six Hundred"
SECOND PLACE
Jordan Harper - "Lisa and I New Years Eve"
THIRD PLACE
Ava Mae Schmidt - " Burned While Cooking"
Visual Art
FIRST PLACE
Kate Glass - "Reincarnate"
SECOND PLACE
Cassidy Benjamin - "Bad Spoon"
THIRD PLACE
Gabriel Spray - "Vicissitudes of Living"
Abraham Ali
VREELAND AWARD FOR POETRY
Kasey Peters
VREELAND AWARD FOR FICTION
UNL Honors Program Graduates
Highest University Honors
Nima Faunce
Ella Hansen
University Honors
Hayden Hauge
Shelby March
Alivia Neater
Graduations With Distinction
Highest Distinction
Nima Faunce - ENGL
Noelle Pinneo - ENGL
High Distinction
Zahraa Fanharawi - ENGL
Jocelyn Garcia Gutierrez - ENGL
Grace Gilroy - ENGL
Marissa Hanley - ENGL
Ella Hansen - ENGL
Jordan Harper - ENGL
Hayden Hauge - ENGL & FILM
Jesse Nguyen - ENGL
Lilian Nguyen - ENGL
Kamryn Tuttle - ENGL
Ava Williams - ENGL
Distinction
August Fritton - ENGL
Alivia Neater - ENGL
Brittani Perez - ENGL
Karl Ring - FILM
Chancellor's Scholars
Naomi Chamberlian - FILM
Nina Faunce - ENGL
Ella Hansen - ENGL
Jordan Harper - ENGL
Kamryn Tuttle - ENGL
Student Luminary Award
Brittani Perez - ENGL
Graduating ESAB Mentors
Jordan Harper (3 years)
Elias Hunt (1 year)
Kevin Aranda Garcia (4 years, December graduation)
Travis Cohen Acosta
SANDOZ FICTION - FIRST PLACE
Lydia Abedeen
SANDOZ FICTION - SECOND PLACE
Department Awards
Hough Teaching Award
Christina Harding-Thorton
LECTURER
University Awards & Appointments
Leland J. Dorothy H. Olson Chancellor's Distinguished Chair
Joy Castro
Dean's Award for Excellence in Graduate Education
Stacey Waite
Tenure & Promotions
James Brunton - Promoted to Associate Professor of Practice
College Awards & Appointments
Outstanding Research and Creative Activities Award
Melissa Homestead
College Distinguished Teaching Award
Michael Page
National & International Awards & Grants
Summer 2025 International Writing Centers Association Research Grant for, "Writing as Thinking: An Investigation Into Human Versus AI Interaction During the Writing Process"
Rachel Azima & Benjamin Reed
Scholarly Editions and Translations Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to research and digitize Whitman's Journalism from the late 1840's
Kevin McMullen & Walt Whitman Archive
Houghton Library Visiting Fellowship, Harvard University
Melissa Homestead
Julian P. Boyd Award from the Association for Documentary Editing
Kenneth Price
2025 Margaret Fuller Prize from The New England Quarterly for, "Houghton Mifflin Readers' Reports and the Shape of Charles Chestnutt's Literary Career"
Kenneth Price & Lauren Millhorn
President's Award from the North American Victorian Studies Association
Adrian Wisnicki
Alina Nguyễn
GAFFNEY/ACADEMY OF AMERICAN POETS - FIRST PLACE
Chibueze Darlington Anuonye
LOUIS CROMPTON PRIZE
December 2025 Graduates
PH.D. | Advisor | M.A. | Advisor | |
| Majed Alatawi | Adrian Wisnicki | Avery Clason | Rachael Shah | |
| Zainab Omaki | Joy Castro |
May 2026 Graduates
PH.D. | Advisor | M.A. | Advisor | |
| Alexandia Bissell | Stacey Waite | Abraham Ali | Hope Wabuke | |
| Kathleen Dillon | Deborah Minter | Manasseh Awuni | Timothy Schaffert | |
| Blake Kinnett | Timothy Schaffert | Ella Kehr | Peter Capuano | |
| Ian Maxton | Joy Castro & Marco Abel | Nathaniel Kielian | Stacey Waite | |
| Jason McCormick | Rachael Shah | Richard Lawer | Shari Stenberg | |
| Carolyn Nolte | Melissa Homestead | Maria Loya-Perez | Pascha Sotolongo-Stevenson | |
| Cynthia Mbagwu | Ng'ang'a Wahu-Mũchiri | |||
| Kylie Rowland | Shari Stenberg | |||
| Emma Whaley | Kelly Stage |
August 2026 Graduates
PH.D. | Advisor |
| April Bayer | Melissa Homestead |
| Caroliena Cabada | Joy Castro |
| Serenity Dougherty | Rachael Shah |
| Katherine Pierson | Joy Castro |
Graduate Fellowship and Award Recipients
Graduate Student Excellence in Mentoring Award
Kasey Peters
2026 Winner of the Yale Series of Younger Poets
Hough Teaching Award
Ian Maxton
CREATIVE WRITING
Arka Maitra
LITERATURE
Tina Le
COMPOSITION & RHETORIC
Department Awards
Stuff Fellowships
Chibueze Darlington Anonye
Jackie Chicalese
Tina Le
Arka Maitra
John Robinson Award for Scholarly Papers
Lénora Kergal
"Foucault's Discursive Regimes of Power Across Indigenous Histories in the United States"
WINNER
Nominated by: Tom Gannon
Kenneth Hoover
"Whitman's 'Lilacs' and Hauntology"
HONORABLE MENTION
Nominated by: Kenneth Price
Louis Crompton Prize
Chibueze Darlington Anuonye
"Ungrievable Life"
CO-WINNER
JC Andrews
"Body Studies: Poetry Portfolio and Analysis"
CO-WINNER
EGSA Award Winners
Presented by: Arka Maitra
Excellence in Teaching Award (M.A. Student)
Richard Ayertey Lawer
Excellence in Teaching Award (PH.D. Student)
Rasaq Malik
Outstanding Service Award
Kasey Peters
Star Professor Award
Melissa Homestead
Caroliena Cabada