Additional Contests

The Academy of American Poets Prize recognizes outstanding student poetry, with separate $100 awards for one graduate student and one undergraduate student. Winners age 23 or younger may also be considered for the Academy's Aliki Perroti and Seth Frank Most Promising Young Poet Award.

Submission details

• Open to graduate and undergraduate students, with separate divisions
• Entries should consist of a single poem in any style.
• Poems submitted for this contest may be entered in other contests except for other single-poem contests and the Keith Taylor Award contest.
• No student who has won this award may compete again in the contest, nor may a winning poem be subsequently entered in any other Hopwood Program contest.

Sponsored by the University of Michigan Club of New York in honor of distinguished playwright and U-M graduate Arthur Miller, this scholarship award recognizes outstanding creative writing by undergraduate sophomores and juniors.

Submission details

• Open only to sophomores and juniors
• These genres are eligible for submission: fiction, poetry, drama, screenplay, or a combination of these. Nonfiction may not be entered in this contest.
• Page limits: Minimum 20 pages, Maximum 120 pages.
• Work that has been submitted to other Hopwood contests may be submitted to the Arthur Miller Award contest.
• Work that has won first through fifth place in any Hopwood contest may not be submitted to the Arthur Miller Award contest.

The Bain-Swiggett Poetry Prize recognizes a poem in form. This form can be traditional (i.e., sonnet, sestina, ghazal, etc.) or contemporary (i.e., golden shovel).

Submission details

• Open to graduate and undergraduate students 
• Entries should consist of a single poem.
• Poems submitted for this contest may be entered in other contests except for other single-poem contests and the Keith Taylor Award contest.
• No student who has won this award may compete again in the contest, nor may a winning poem be subsequently entered in any other Hopwood Program contest.

These two awards each recognize excellence in a single short story. The awards honor Cora Duncan, a five-time Hopwood winner and influential teacher and mentor, and Peter Philip Pratt, a 1985 Hopwood winner whose work had a lasting impact on public policy in Michigan.

Submission details

• Open only to undergraduate students
• Page limits for both contests: No minimum; 30-page maximum.
• Students may enter both contests, but they must submit different stories to each.
• Students may submit stories to the Cora Duncan Award and the Peter Philip Pratt Award that have also been submitted to the Hopwood Undergraduate Fiction or Hopwood First- and Second-Year Fiction contests.
• Students may not enter work that has won a prize in any Hopwood contest.

The David Porter Award recognizes excellence in journalism, including news and feature writing, narrative journalism, and long-form journalism. It is named for David Porter, former Chair of the University of Michigan English Department and Director of the Detroit River Story Lab.

Submission details

• Open to graduate and undergraduate students
• Page limits: No minimum; 25-page maximum. 
• Work that has been previously published in a newspaper or trade magazine may be submitted; however, the piece must have been published within the time that the student has been enrolled as a University of Michigan student in the capacity in which they are currently enrolled. 
  • For instance, a current graduate student may not submit work published when they were an undergraduate. 
• Unpublished work may also be submitted to this contest.
• Manuscripts submitted in this contest may be submitted in other Hopwood contests.

Established in memory of Hopwood winner Jeffrey L. Weisberg, this prize recognizes the best poems submitted by freshmen or sophmores at the University of Michigan.

Submission details

• Open only to freshmen and sophomores
• Entries should consist of a single poem in any style.
• Poems submitted for this contest may be entered in other contests except for other single-poem contests and the Keith Taylor Award contest.
• No student who has won this award may compete again in the contest.

Established by University of Michigan graduates Lawrence and Meg Kasdan, the Kasdan Scholarship recognizes outstanding dramatic writing. Finalist manuscripts are judged by a staff member at Kasdan Pictures

Submission details

• Open to graduate and undergraduate students
• Submissions may be screenplays, plays, or teleplays. Preference will be given to screenplays, all other considerations being equal.
• Page Limits: 
  • Screenplays: 90–110 pages
  • Teleplays: at least 50 pages
  • One-act plays: 50–60 pages
  • Full-length plays: 80–100 pages
• A contestant may submit only one screenplay or full-length play, but may submit two one-act plays.
• Only completed works, as opposed to works in progress, may be submitted.
• The same manuscript may be submitted in other contests administered by the Hopwood Program.
• Students may not enter work that has won a prize in any Hopwood contest.
• No student who has won this award may compete again in the contest.

The Keith Taylor Excellence in Poetry Award recognizes an outstanding undergraduate poet whose work explores the human condition and our relationship to the natural world. The award honors poet, writer, teacher, and longtime University of Michigan creative writing mentor Keith Taylor.

Submission details

• Open to undergraduate students
• Submissions should consist of three to five poems that explore the human condition and our relationship to the natural world.
• Page limits: No minimum, 15 pages maximum.
• Poems submitted for this contest may be entered in other contests except for any of the single-poem contests.

Established in memory of Marjorie Rapaport, this award recognizes a single poem in any style.

Submission details

• Open only to undergraduate students
• Entries should consist of a single poem of any length or style.
• Poems submitted for this contest may be entered in other contests except for other single-poem contests and the Keith Taylor Award contest.
• No student who has won this award may compete again in the contest.

The Michael R. Gutterman Award recognizes a poem that exemplifies the spirit of Avery Hopwood's charge to encourage “the new, the unusual, and the radical.”

Submission details

• Open to graduate and undergraduate students
• The submission should consist of a single poem of any length or style that exemplifies “the new, the unusual, and the radical.”
• Poems submitted for this contest may be entered in other contests except for other single-poem contests and the Keith Taylor Award contest.
• No student who has won this award may compete again in the contest.

Established in memory of Professor Roy W. Cowden, a former Director of the Hopwood Prize Program, this fellowship recognizes outstanding creative writing across a range of genres.

The Cowden Fellowship is the only Hopwood contest in which students compete by campus: Ann Arbor students compete with other Ann Arbor students, Dearborn students with other Dearborn students, and Flint students with other Flint students.

Submission details

• Open only to undergraduate students
• These genres are eligible for submission: fiction, poetry, drama, screenplay, nonfiction, or a combination of these.
• Page limits: Minimum 20 pages, Maximum 120 pages.
• The same manuscript may be submitted in other contests administered by the Hopwood Program.
• Students may not enter work that has won a prize in any Hopwood contest.
• No student who has won this award may compete again in the contest.

The Text/Image Composition Prize recognizes work in which text and image come together to form an integrated composition. Submissions may combine genres and visual forms in a wide range of creative ways.

Text may include fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, or a combination of genres. Still images (black-and-white or color) can include drawn or painted illustrations, collage, photographs, public domain graphics, typography, innovative page arrangements, or a combination of these.

Submission details

• Open to graduate and undergraduate students
• Text and images must be created by the same author/artist and cannot be AI generated
• Page limits: Minimum 8 pages, Maximum 80 pages
• Submissions may consist of a single work or combination of two or more works, each of which combines text and image
  • For instance, a submission could be a full-length comic, several graphic poems, or a graphic essay and an illustrated short story
  • Each manuscript will be judged as a whole
• Manuscripts submitted to this contest may not be submitted to any other Hopwood contest.