Henrietta Hickman Morgan Memorial Award

Writing Studio Office and Primary Location
Curb Center Building (1801 Edgehill Avenue), Suite 112

Satellite Location
217 Commons Center

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Congratulations to the Winners of the 2025 Morgan Award for First-Year Writers!

Have you written something you are proud of during your first year at Vanderbilt? Submit it for the Henrietta Morgan Memorial Award!

Each year the Writing Studio conducts the competition for the Henrietta Hickman Morgan Memorial Award for first-year writers. Established by William Morgan in memory of his wife, the award goes to the first-year student who submits the best sample of original writing.

Deadline: Friday, May 8, 2026, by 11:59 p.m. CDT

Continue reading for guidelines, prize details, submission procedures, and a gallery of recent winners.

Submission Guidelines

Submissions need not have been written for a 鈥淲鈥� class or for any class.There are no restrictions as to length, type of writing, or subject matter (although all submissions must be in English).

Students may submit papers written as class assignments, or they may write papers especially for this contest. Poems, short stories, critical essays, research papers, articles of opinion, or expository essays are all acceptable. A student may not, however, submit more than two entries.

To be eligible, the student must be a currently enrolled undergraduate member of the first-year class in the College of Arts and Science, Peabody College, the Blair School of Music, or the School of Engineering. The paper submitted must have been written during the undergraduate student鈥檚 first year at Vanderbilt.

Manuscripts are submitted electronically through the online submission form (unless alternative submission arrangements are made) and must be typed and double-spaced with standard page settings. Each submission must have a title and must not contain the author鈥檚 name (within the document or filename), other identifying information, or editing mark-up by the author or others.*

The Morgan Award Online Submission Form (see link below) must be completed and signed for each entry (max. 2).

*Please note that while entries are judged anonymously, the award organizers do not guarantee anonymity to entrants, especially in the case of entries the contents of which cause concern for the author鈥檚 wellbeing.
THE PRIZES

Three prizes will be awarded: a first prize of $200.00, a second prize of $150.00, and a third prize of $100.00. The entries will be judged by a committee of writing course instructors.
2025-2026 SUBMISSIONS

InfoReady Entry Form: Entries should be submitted electronically through the Morgan Award Submission Form in InfoReady by Friday, May 8, 2026. The entry form will be made available early in the spring semester, and it will remain open until the deadline.

(Electronic submissions preferred, but alternate submission arrangements can be made. Please contact the organizers using the email address below.)

Winners will be notified in June and announced here on the Writing Studio鈥檚 website as well as via the Writing Studio鈥檚 and accounts.

Questions? Please email writing.studio@vanderbilt.edu.