CWPD Writing Prizes

Each year, members of CMC’s Writing Committee select winners for the Summer Book Writing Prize and for the CMC Distinguished Writing Prize. Award-winning entries are remarkable both for their intellectual engagement with the subject matter and for the quality of the writing showcased therein.

First-year students are eligible for the Summer Book Writing Prize and, this year, entries responded to any aspect of the shared summer text, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.


This year, the following students were awarded the Summer Book Writing Prize:

Wren Cilimburg, for “The Role of Motherhood in Two Futuristic Societies,” “an essay that compares the ways in which women and mothers are portrayed in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland.”

Truman Knowles, for “A Letter to My Dear World Controller,” “a poem about the death of love in hedonism."

All CMC students are eligible for the CMC Distinguished Writing Prize, and submissions may include a wide array of subjects spanning various genres.

Any form of single-authored creative or expository writing will be eligible, including assignments completed for a course, poetry, and essays written for a general audience.


This year, the following students were awarded the Distinguished Writing Prize:

Axel Ahdritz, “The Memory Function,”- “an attempt to restore the place of public memory in the ontology of Literature.”

Sarah Ceja, “The Black Prozac: Mental Health and Hip Hop,” - “an essay that examines the topic of mental health as it appears in both classic and modern hip hop texts.”

Isabelle Jia, “The Stench of Youth,” - “"A series of poems that embody the themes of painful adolescence, loss, fleeting feelings and the fear of love, one's continuous search for identity, and inevitable growth. Written for and by my past self."

Victoria Johnson, “Online Targeted Advertising: A Critique of Google’s 2019 Proposal Addressing Privacy Policy and Public Concern.”