Walnut Hill | The Elizabeth Bishop Prizes

WRITING & PUBLISHING

The New Elizabeth Bishop Prizes

About Elizabeth Bishop

While a student at Walnut Hill from 1927 to 1930, Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Elizabeth Bishop contributed poems, short fiction, plays, and book reviews to The Blue Pencil, and she served as editor of the magazine during her senior year. In recognition of Bishop’s contributions to the school and to literary history, and as part of its mission to celebrate the freshest, most accomplished examples of imaginative literary craft by young writers, the Writing & Publishing Program has since 2004 invited young writers around the world to submit verse and fiction to the Elizabeth Bishop Prizes. From more than 1500 submissions—some composed as near as Natick, others as far away as Abu Dhabi—the students of the department, who constitute the panel of judges for the competition, select ten winners (see table below).

What’s New

Now, following its launch last winter, The Blue Pencil Online announces the NEW Elizabeth Bishop Prizes in Verse, Fiction, and Playwriting. The students of Writing & Publishing welcome the opportunity to consider for The Bishop Prizes every piece of verse, fiction, and playwriting submitted to the magazine.

Each Bishop Prize winner will receive a $15,000 scholarship to the Writing & Publishing Program at Walnut Hill* in addition to a copy of Elizabeth Bishop’s Poems, Prose, and Letters, published by The Library of America, a steadfast supporter of the Prizes.

* All scholarships are contingent upon application to and acceptance by Walnut Hill’s Admission Committee. Walnut Hill reserves the right not to award a Prize in any category.

How to Submit

Any piece of fiction, verse, or playwriting that has been written by a student who does not attend Walnut Hill and who entered grade 8, 9, 10, or 11 in the fall of 2009, and submits their entry between October 1, 2009, and February 1, 2010 (2:00 p.m., EST), will be considered for the Prizes.

For further details, please visit The Bishop Prizes at The Blue Pencil Online.

Elizabeth Bishop Prize Winners

	Winner in Verse	Winner in Fiction
2004-5	Daniel Nicolas Grade 10	Daniel Oshima Grade 11
2005-6	Eliza Heath Grade 10	Sadie McCarney Grade 8
2006-7	Michael Bartley Grade 10	Danny Kessler Grade 11
2007-8	Sophia Renda Grade 11	Erica Berry Grade 10
2008-9	Erica Berry Grade 11	Marina Stevenson Grade 11

Questions?
E-mail Allan Reeder, Head of Studio Publications, at areeder@walnuthillarts.org.