The Department of English Language and Literature is delighted to announce the winners of this year’s Joyce Marshall Hsia Memorial Poetry Prize and Margó Takacs Marshall Prize for Excellence in Short Story Writing.

First place in the poetry category goes to Sasha Pickering, a graduate student in Women’s and Gender Studies, for a series of reflections on the relationship between nature and humanity. Connor Hattie, an English Major also pursuing a minor in Psychology, took first place in the short fiction category for “Presenting a New Beginning,” a genre-crossing exploration of dream image and free association.

The Awards Committee reviewed a strong pool of entries this year, in both the poetry and fiction categories. The judges would like to extend their gratitude to all students who submitted their work, and to the sponsors of these awards. The annual creative writing contests are open to any student currently enrolled at Saint Mary’s University. Next year’s deadline for submissions will be in the Spring of 2025.

Here is the full list of winners:  

Joyce Marshall Hsia Memorial Poetry Prize

• First Prize – “Construction at the corner of Oxford and North, March 2023” by Sasha Pickering.

• Second Prize – “mistuh kurtz" by Curtis Vandenbrand.
• Third Prize – “Wordsworth’s Daffodils” and others, by Annastatia Brooks.

Margó Takacs Marshall Prize for Excellence in Short Story Writing

• First prize –  “Presenting a New Beginning,” by Connor Hattie.
• Second prize – “Hokey Poetry,” by Andrew Stilwell.
• Third prize – “A Ghost, a Witch, a Town,” by Julia Yurchesyn.