ODU English Department

Here are a few more pics of our English students at graduation! Congratulations, all! 🎓🎓🎓

We can’t believe the end of the semester is here, and it’s time once again to congratulate our graduating students! 🎓📚

Here’s a photo of Ren Avera, English/Secondary English Education major! Please join us in celebrating all of our graduates and wishing them the very best in their next chapter. ✨

If you have any graduation photos, we’d love to include them in a post later this week. Please send them to Marianne Chan at [email protected].

Scenes from tonight’s third-year MFA in Creative Writing reading celebration at Chandler Hall! Congratulations to our graduating writers! We are so proud of all you’ve accomplished and can’t wait to see where your writing takes you next. 😊

Some photos from the English End-of-the-Year Event! 🪩

The 2026 English Awards Ceremony was a success. We’re proud to recognize the incredible talent, hard work, and dedication of our students and instructors. Here’s a look at those celebrated at last night’s English Awards Ceremony.

Distinguished Guest Speaker: Featured Alumna Lauren Grant (’20)

Scholarships:
The David Scott Sutelan Memorial Scholarship: Charles Rhodes
Perry Morgan Fellows: Ella Smith and Maddy Terlep
Friends of the MFA Program Scholarship: Madison Britt
Jerri Fuller Dickseski Endowed MA in English Scholarship: Michael Burdette
Joan Argyle Shambaugh Graduate Scholarship in English: Dahlia Perez

ODU College Poetry Prize Winners:
Graduate Honorable Mentions: “I like,” by Evelyn Griffith; “abecedarian while on hold with,” by Winnie Wong
Graduate Runner-up: “What discerns the desperate from the willing?” by Megan A. Pastore
Graduate Winner: “Inspecting the Crabs,” by Gabriela A. Igloria

Undergraduate Runner-up: “Slip,” by Esidra Swift
Undergraduate Winner: “May you never exist to learn my language,” by Kalea Brasfield

Sigma Tau Delta Inductees:
Eryn Anderson, Emily Dubicke, Jorja Connelley, Cassidy Fernandez, Ashton Marten, Laney Overholt, Kyla (Ky) Phillips, Grace Reaves, Morgan Robinson, Sam Saunders, and Ash Thomas

Undergraduate Critical Essay Winner: Breyanah Drayton for “Deconstructing ‘Fight Club’ Through Eagleton and Norton”

Undergraduate Curriculum Design, Teacher Research, Practitioner Writing Competition: Asli Peri Ergur for “Innovative Teaching Ideas”

Undergraduate Applied Linguistics Research Paper Competition: Natalie Hillinger for “Ethnography”

Dickseski Fiction Prize Winners (2025):
Undergraduate Winner: Shane Green, “Down with Delivery Boy”
Graduate Honorable Mention: A.J. Miller, “Hunger”
Graduate Winner: Rebekah Sanderlin, “Jump to Recipe”

The Diane Zinna Creative Nonfiction Prize:
Undergraduate Honorable Mention: Jeremy Phillips, “A Pleasant Walk Alone”
Undergraduate Winner: Madison Delbrugge, “Laurel Highlands”
Graduate Honorable Mention: Matt Holsopple, “A View of the Box”
Graduate Winner: Jerome Newsome, “Bites”

Benjamin Equitan Jr. Essay Prize:
Honorable Mentions: “I Am Not Enough” by Janice G. Estepa and “Ben Equitan Essay” by Jessica Anne M. Villaluna
Winner: “Threading Tides” by Kennice Balmoria

Outstanding First-Year Teacher: Megan Pastore

Outstanding GTA Teaching Award: Matt Holsopple

University GTA Award: Helen Peluso

Outstanding Tutor: Dana Broadus and Sydney Walker

Outstanding Student(s) in English: Natalie Hillinger and Ash Thomas

Some photos from last week's second African American Voices & Multimedia Showcase! A special thanks again to Dr. Kimberly Williams and her students.

Thank you so much to alumna Lauren Grant for sharing her knowledge with our students during the English Showcase Week! Here is a picture of her in Dr. Michelle Fowler-Amato's Teaching Composition, Grades 6-12 course.

Only a few more days to submit to Brackish Waters, an anthology dedicated to work about Hampton Roads and edited by the students in English 683 (Literary Editing and Publishing)!

English Awards 🏆 are starting now!

Some pics from yesterday’s Knowledge and Creativity Expo! It was wonderful to see so many attendees celebrating the research and creative works of our undergraduate, graduate, and medical student scholars 📚🎓

See you shortly for 🏆 The English Awards Ceremony 🏆 in the Yetiv Auditorium from 4-6PM!