National Program Directors' Prize for Undergraduate Literary Magazines
2008 Winners & 2009 Guidelines

The Association of Writers & Writing Programs is pleased to announce the winners of the 2008 National Program Directors' Prizes for Undergraduate Literary Magazines. Instituted by the directors of AWP member creative writing programs, the prizes are awarded annually in the categories of content and design. Each winning magazine-one in content, one in design- receives a $500 cash award. For a list of previous winners, please see: Past Winners 2001-2007. Information about and submission guidelines for the 2009 prize can be found at the bottom of this page.

2008 Design Winner:
Spring Formal
Kansas City Art Institute
http://www.kcai.edu/

"Its design demands that we reconsider the conventions assembled around the premise we call the ‘literary magazine’ and question our habits of readerly address. Without indulging in gratuitous eccentricity, the layout brought me up short over and over, nagging, taunting, challenging me as the reader (or looker) to see anew the rules of a venerable engagement. This agitation extends even to the imaginative deployment of split images of what I surmised to be the contributors. We're invited to wonder, ‘Who are these people, and what do their faces possibly have to do with these blocks of prose or lines of verse?’ A gentle satire, it is, also, on the desperate assertion that an author is a singular being and writing evidence of such commemorative wholeness."
-Design Judge: Donald Morrill, University of Tampa

2008 Content Winner:
Statement
California State University, Los Angeles
http://www.calstatela.edu/academic/english/st-2007.htm
http://coolstatela.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=749

"This is a magazine that is inclusive of writers of all colors, classes, and geographies without practicing the fetishism of difference. High literary standards guide Statement’s prose and poetry selections. Interviews with notable writers, such as Rita Dove, were balanced by the presentation of younger writers whose individual passions as writers offer the rich complexities of life in the 21st century."
-Content Judge: Rane Arroyo, University of Toledo

2009 Submission Guidelines:

Undergraduate literary magazines published between March 15, 2008 & March 15, 2009 are eligible for consideration. Magazines must be staffed & edited primarily by undergraduate students & must include some undergraduate writing. Two copies of a single issue of the magazines should be submitted as representative of the year's production. Each entry should be accompanied by a cover letter which should contain complete contact information. The final judges for content & design will be announced at the conclusion of the competition.

Winners will be announced in the The Writer's Chronicle & in other media, & winning magazines will be featured at AWP's Annual Conference the following year. Prize money will be sent directly to the winning magazines.

Submissions must arrive at AWP by March 15th, 2009. Send two copies of one issue and contact information to: National Program Directors' Prizes, The Association of Writers & Writing Programs, MSN 1E3, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA 22030-4444.

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