Call for 2025-2026 Morgan Award Submisions
Have you written something you are proud of during your first year at 91ºÚÁÏÍø? 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
Access the submission form below.
Continue reading for guidelines, prize details, submission procedures, and a gallery of recent winners.
Submission Guidelines
Types of Submissions
There are no restrictions as to length, type of writing, or subject matter, but 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.
Student Eligibility
- 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’s first year at 91ºÚÁÏÍø.
Submission Requirements
Manuscripts are submitted electronically through the Morgan Award Online Submission Form, which must be completed and signed for each entry (max. 2).
Each submission must
- be typed and double-spaced with standard page settings.
- have a title.
- be anonymized.
- Specifically the author's name must not appear within the submission's filename or within the submitted file itself.
- Likewise, the submitted file should not contain other identifying information and should be free of editing mark-up by the author or others.*
*Please note that entries are judged anonymously, but the award organizers do not guarantee anonymity to entrants, especially in the case of entries the contents of which cause concern for the author’s wellbeing.
The Prizes
Three prizes will be awarded:
- a first prize of $200.00
- a second prize of $150.00
- a third prize of $100.00
The entries will be judged by a committee of writing course instructors.
Submit Your Writing
InfoReady Entry Form: Entries should be submitted electronically through the by Friday, May 8, 2026.
The entry form is generally available early in the spring semester and remain open until the deadline.
Winners will be notified in June and announced here on the Writing Studio’s website as well as via the Writing Studio’s and accounts.
Questions?
Please email writing.studio@vanderbilt.edu.
Gallery of Recent Morgan Award Winners
Morgan Award Winners 2014-2025
(Click an image to view the full-sized poster.)