With great pride, the English Department would like to announce the winners of the Engage Writing Contest. We were struck by the way each writer's voice comes through in their writings in unique and powerful ways. With gravitas, power, and insight, these writers explore matters personal as well as universal.
Below, you will find excerpts from their submissions. Congratulations, winners! Thank you for your dedication to the craft.
2025/2026
1st Place: Holly Royce
“A Pattern Redrafted”
I took up drawing at a young age. I drew everything I could: people, animals, buildings, landscapes. I would occupy myself for hours with nothing more than a stack of paper and a pencil. Toward the end of fourth grade, I became particularly interested in drawing clothing and designing outfits. I filled book after book with fashion sketches, and it soon became apparent to my grandmother that this was more than a hobby. . . .
2nd Place: Bianca Gomez
“Chasing the Great American Dream”
When I was very young, I didn’t fully understand what it meant to be undocumented. All I knew was that my parents were afraid and therefore so was I. Fourth grade is when it really started making sense to me that I wasn’t like my friends. There were limits to what I could do, where I could go, and especially what I could say. I lived in constant fear that I would be separated from my parents. . . .
Read "Chasing the Great American Dream"
3rd Place: Brianna Wilson
“This Too Shall Pass”
The parking lot is always crowded at ten forty-five in the morning; families of all backgrounds and ages gather every Sunday morning to worship at Progressive Baptist Church. Kids are still half asleep with visible pillow lines on their faces as they climb out of the car. Moms and dads are scrambling for their Bibles and highlighters, whispering sternly at their children to leave the tablet in the car and hurry up. Families and friends rush to catch up and greet one another as they walk through the doors together. . . .
2024/2025
First Place: Alexandria González
"Literacy Narrative"
“Shtup-shtupping along the red brick sidewalk and dragging my feet as I always did, my grandmother and I would walk in through the heavy wooden doors hand-in-hand and become immediately inundated by the unique and unmistakable aroma of our church. The smell of burning incense could be smelled from the foyer even with no altar boys or their thuribles in sight. . . . Holding my abuela’s hand, we’d step into the sanctuary. . . .”
Second Place: Bainbridge Martenson
“Hachi and the Serpent”
“That was what Hachi wanted. Adventure! To leave the oppressive heat and darkness of the jungle and see what bizarre things the world had to offer! Even the Firebreathers that sought the guidance of the forest god spoke of the outside: that there were gods besides the one that stalked the jungle, and lands far beyond the bounds of the Empire. . . . There was so much to see, and he had seen none of it.”
Read “Hachi and the Serpent”
Third Place: Gabriel Rakow
“Gamer Words: Racism in Gaming”
“If there’s one thing I like, it’s video games. If there’s one thing I don’t like, it’s racism. These should be some very basic and understandable opinions. However, the two are unfortunately intertwined in a way that is detrimental for literally everybody. . . . The anonymity of online gaming has provided a space for misogynistic, bigoted, and white supremacist ideologies to flourish. . . .”
Read "Gamer Words: Racism in Gaming"
2023/2024
First Place: Erin Hanton
“Save the World: Kill Your Lawn”
“If we want to live on a habitable planet in the future, or for our children and grandchildren to be able to, we are going to need to do something about it as soon as possible. . . . Luckily, there is something that we can do to cut back on greenhouse gases put forth into the atmosphere by a significant amount, and it’s something that can be done in almost every state, city, and tiny hamlet in the United States. Kill our lawns.”
Read Save the World: Kill Your Lawn
Second Place: Spencer Caldwell
“The Poison of Polarizing Art: Why America Is Sick and How We Nurse It Back to Health”
“It’s true that controversial artwork is necessary in advancing issue-based conversations in our country; by expressing perspectives that clash with those of the opposing – and even dominant – political voice, artists challenge the public to think in a more nuanced fashion about socio-political issues. However, if we are reckless in expressing these beliefs, we risk deepening social divisions and exacerbating polarization more than we allow solutions to blossom.”
Read The Poison of Polarizing Art: Why America Is Sick and How We Nurse It Back to Health
Third Place: Natalie Elliott
“Why Don’t Broadway Revivals Work Anymore?”
“The stages of Broadway are not often thought of as a place where a politically polarized America would fight its battle. . . . The fact that there have been successful changes to Golden Age shows demonstrates that it’s not just audience dissatisfaction with the mid-century zeitgeist that’s creating a struggle for revival productions. Complications arise when revisions completely eliminate any potentially controversial or offensive content.”
2021 / 2022
First Place: Kendra Bearss
“Father”
“I pull up to the red light, waiting in the left turn lane. He’s there, with his sign, a cracked smile on his lips. I make it a point to meet his eyes, even though it feels uncomfortable. My hands are shaking, my heart races a bit. I’m not sure if I’m feeling social anxiety or fear. Maybe a mix.”
2020/2021
First Place: Shane Curtis-Madden
“Keep Dreaming, America”
“On day one of our nation’s history, the founding fathers made a promise they themselves couldn’t keep. 345 years later, the Declaration of Independence is still held dear, but it remains an unfulfilled promise, a “bad check.” Dr. King called it. People will argue that I have some false sense of entitlement, but if you aren’t entitled to the things you were promised, ideals commonly held as natural law, then what ARE you entitled to? The promise of life includes the right to reasonably maintain and prolong it.”
Second Place: Ebony Henderson
“Movements of Black Culture: The Black Renaissance and Its Legacy”
“Born in the 80’s, I would hear artists and actors speak of the greats from the Harlem Renaissance, one of the many names for The Black Renaissance. As a New Yorker, I was a car ride away from the same streets that were vibrant and filled with the ghosts of the past. You’re always asked what era you would reside in, and it’s just never a fun game for an oppressed citizen. However, I often like to discuss the “old days” with older generations which filled me with so many thoughts….”
Third Place: Derek Evans
“Peace Out”
Honorable Mention: Richard Quillan
"Out of the Matrix”
2017/2018
First Place: Zachary Schondelmayer
"Snapshots of Warmer Places"
"You need to understand that when I write on these subjects or speak on these times, I must essentially revisit the place or experience, and that has a strange biological effect on me. I can feel the darkness and disconnection from all the world, and it’s a deeply hopeless place I worked hard to block out. But for the sake of this piece, and for my own peace, I will walk back into the valley…
I don’t recall our task on this mission, but it took us down some of the worst roads, if you can even call them that. They were trails, and the potholes weren’t scarce. I was oriented in my gunners hatch at the 9:00 with mostly just desert land and occasional palm trees and grape fields when first I saw, then heard, the mortar land. I jumped on the radio 'ONE O’CLOCK ONE HUNDRED METERS MORTAR FIRE!'"
Second Place: Raina Malley
"Following the Child"
"Americans do not seem to recognize that activity and freedom can actually result in achieving important goals, when students are guided and directed in a conducive environment. Perhaps it is the American tradition of a competitive economy, industrialization, or survival-of-the-fittest, that creates this automatic reliance on checklists and factory-style educational development. Regardless, it has been proven that the opposite approach can work. Americans need to become more open-minded and willing to consider the methods of education that are actually yielding the best results, even if at first they do not sound plausible."
Third Place: Steven Duchnowski
"A Fisherman on Deck Immersed in Sea and Lightening Bugs"
"I realized then she wasn’t coming for me, in an empty schoolyard after hours, waiting. My eyes wandered some and observe the way Teacher holds her cigarette, gentle but firm, with a desperate inhale and trembling exhale; how the end burns like a brilliant sun and leaves feeble ash behind. Soon after a habitual flick of the finger she sucked down another drag, eyes deep and dull, red and raw. What is it that ails this woman? I wondered.
'Did your mother say she was doing anything today?' She asked in that bleak lifeless voice, flicked the remainder of the cigarette into the dry autumn leaves, as I too remained entranced by that orange light, how it moved and left a stretch of black behind, like headlights cutting through the darkness."
2016/2017
First Place: Lambert Shekanena
"A Bucket of Fried Chicken"
"One Tuesday after chapel service had concluded, a young brown haired girl dashed up to the pulpit as we were exiting, snatched the mic out of the dean’s hand and called us all to attention. She reached under the pulpit and pulled out a small, mustard yellow, woven basket filled to the brim with a mini watermelon, packets of grape Kool Aide, and a bucket of fried chicken. My eyes widened in terror as she proceeded to ask a young Black man to the banquet with her basket of microaggressions and they nearly burst out of their sockets when the brother said yes."
Second Place: MaryAnne Flier
"With Liberty and Justice for Some"
"We must seek to change this narrative in our country. We must open our eyes to the systems that have been, and still are, in place to hold down or oppress people of color. To begin, as Ms. Uwan stated, we must work tirelessly to know the reality that faces people of color, to really listen to their stories, to live in community with them. In doing this, we are unable to subconsciously keep them relegated as “others” in our minds any longer, and are truly able to squelch any implicit biases we hold. This is truly a crucial first step to racial justice. A sometimes-painful, but absolutely necessary, first step."
Third Place: James King
Untitled
"So there was conception. I don't remember it. And then I was born, like all of you, crippled and stupid, with a vast cavern of mind to fill with memories, conclusions, judgments: a warehouse where we build the store of implements with which we nightly torture ourselves in our dreams."