This year’s Hopwood Awards competition saw 1,096 submissions from 350 students - making it the second-largest pool in the program’s history.

Across more than 30 prize categories and subcategories, 114 awards were distributed. Residential College students and RC Creative Writing & Literature (CW) majors stood out once again!

RC students earned 30 awards, including multiple top placements in major Hopwood categories. Five of those awards went to RC Creative Writing & Literature majors.

Residential College Award Winners

Holly Tschirhart, an RC CW major, earned five awards:

  • First place – Hopwood Novel

  • Third place – Hopwood Drama

  • Finalist – Text/Image Composition Prize

  • Geoffrey James Gosling Prize

  • Dennis McIntyre Prize for Distinction in Undergraduate Playwriting

Lillian Reed-Nordwall, also an RC CW major, earned:

  • First place – Hopwood Screenplay

  • Naomi Saferstein Literary Award

Alex Hetzler, another RC CW major, earned:

  • First place – Hopwood Fiction (Undergraduate)

  • Robert F. Haugh Prize

Other RC CW majors recognized include Suparna Hande (Cora Duncan Award in Fiction) and Abigail Kalin (5th place – First and Second Year Undergraduate Nonfiction).

Additional RC students earned top placements across genres:

  • Ruby Lewis received the Academy of American Poets Prize, the Bain-Swiggett Poetry Prize, and the Keith Taylor Excellence in Poetry Award.

  • Christian Bade, Siena Beres, Maureen Waldner, and Aja Lynn earned first or second place in first- and second-year undergraduate categories for poetry, nonfiction, and fiction.

  • Maeson Linnert placed in both drama and playwriting.

  • Elena Mills, an RC Arts & Ideas major, was a finalist for the Text/Image Composition Prize.

The Hopwood Program was created from a bequest by Avery Hopwood (U-M Class of 1905), a successful playwright who requested the funds be used to support “the new, the unusual, and the radical” in student writing.

Since 1931, it has awarded over $6 million to more than 3,000 writers.The RC’s emphasis on original thought, interdisciplinary work, and writing with purpose continues to align closely with that mission.

The strong showing at this year’s Hopwood Awards reflects the depth of talent and creative ambition within the RC community.