At the annual graduate student colloquium, a late spring gathering to which all students, faculty, and members of the community are invited, select students read winning scholarly papers and creative entries. The colloquium gives our best students the opportunity to share their work with others, it allows their peers to see standards of excellence against which they can measure their own work, and it invites students and faculty to mix for an evening of intellectual and social pleasures.

In March the Director of Graduate Studies in English issues a call for critical papers and creative entries (poetry, short fiction, drama, familiar essays) from graduate students in English. After students have submitted their work by the prescribed deadline, a committee of graduate faculty members reads the entries and make awards: first and second places and honorable mention in the scholarly/critical writing category and first and second places and honorable mention in the creative writing category. There is usually a cash prize for the first and second place winners in each category. The greatest laurel, though, is the opportunity for the winning authors to share their work with others in the academic community.

The graduate faculty strongly encourage students to submit work for consideration and, win or lose, to attend the colloquium reading. Submitting a paper is good practice for being in a professional conference-like atmosphere, and you can use your experience to enhance your résumé either for finding a job in academics or for applying to a PhD program in English.