The Rudolph William Rosati Creative Writing Award

THE BASICS

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Jumbled letters (photo by Laineys Repetoire - CC-BY)

What is the Rudolph William Rosati Creative Writing Award?

The Rosati Creative Writing Prize is awarded each spring in recognition of an outstanding work of creative writing. All Duke first year or sophomore students are eligible to submit work for consideration. Projects may be any genre and take any form (audio/video, digital media, etc.), but must include a substantial creative writing component. The Rosati Prize was established in 1978 by Walter McGowan Upchurch in honor of Rudolph William Rosati “to encourage, advance and reward creative writing among students at the University and particularly among undergraduate students.”

Prize: $1500

Is my paper eligible?

  • You must be a Duke first year or sophomore student (or just finished that year). Duke juniors and seniors may apply for the William Styron Creative Writing Award.
  • You may submit multiple, different projects in a given year but each project should be submitted individually with an accompanying application cover sheet
  • Submitted projects must have been written during the current academic year
  • At this time submissions must be written in English
  • No minimum or maximum length required

How do I apply?

To be eligible for the Rudolph William Rosati Creative Writing Award, email the following to Arianne Hartsell-Gundy by June 15, 2025:

How is a winner chosen?

  • The selection committee, consisting of three Libraries staff members and two faculty members, judges the papers
  • Projects are judged based on quality and originality of writing
  • The committee reserves the right to split the award among more than one author, or to award no prize

For more information

Contact Arianne Hartsell-Gundy, Librarian for Literature (arianne.hartsell.gundy@duke.edu), for more information.

Previous winners

Before posting a document on the library website, content creators for winning entries should follow Duke University's Web Accessibility Content Creation Guidelines when preparing the version of their document to be shared publicly.