Denise Gess Literary Award
Denise Gess Literary Award
Denise Gess Literary Award
All currently enrolled undergraduate and graduate students in good standing at Rowan University are eligible to submit their original work for consideration. Students may enter in more than one genre.
Edward J. Czwartacki Award for Fiction
For more information, please contact Writing Arts professor Heather Lanier at lanier@rowan.edu
2025 Award Winners
Dr. Antoinette C. Libro Award for Poetry
Graduate Winners
Undergraduate Winners
Edward Czwartacki Award for Fiction
Graduate Winners
Undergraduate Winners
Pat B. Tweedie Award for Creative Nonfiction
Graduate Winners
Undergraduate Winners
Second Place: Emma Teiper - "Television and Cannibalism"
Past Winners
2024 Winners
Edward Czwartacki Prize for Fiction
Graduate Winners
Undergraduate Winners
Honorable Mention: Alexa Diamant - "The Spectral Rift"
Rowan University Prize for Poetry
Graduate Winners
Undergraduate Winners
Pat B. Tweedie Prize for Creative Nonfiction
Graduate Winners
Undergraduate Winners
Second Place: Yadhira Almonte - "All of the Stars"
2023 Winners
Edward Czwartacki Prize for Fiction
Rowan University Prize for Poetry
Pat B. Tweedie Prize for Creative Nonfiction
2022 Winners
Edward Czwartacki Prize for Fiction
Rowan University Prize for Poetry
Pat B. Tweedie Prize for Creative Nonfiction
2021 Winners
Edward Czwartacki Prize for Fiction
Rowan University Prize for Poetry
Pat B. Tweedie Prize for Creative Nonfiction
2018 Winners
Edward Czwartacki Prize for Fiction
Rowan University Prize for Poetry
Pat B. Tweedie Prize for Creative Nonfiction
2016 Winners
Edward Czwartacki Prize for Fiction
Rowan University Prize for Poetry
Pat B. Tweedie Prize for Creative Nonfiction
2014 Winners
The Edward Czwartacki Award for Fiction
The Rowan University Prize for Poetry
Second Place: Stephanie Kohler - "Stuck on the Cusp"
Third Place: Regina McMenamin-Lloyd - "Nostaligia Poetry"
The Pat B. Tweedie Award for Nonfiction
Second Place: Joe DiCarlo - "Six Days in the Absence of Life"
Third Place: Alfred J. Dansbury, Sr. - "Making Do"
Honorable Mention: Carol Magrino - "Subscribing"
2012 Winners
The Edward J. Czwartacki Award for Short Fiction
Rowan University Prize for Poetry
The Pat. B. Tweedie Award for Creative Nonfiction
2010 Winners
The Edward J. Czwartacki Award for Fiction
First Place: Jackie Cassidy - "Hondo"Second Place: Hayley Van Amburg - "The Prize"
Second Place: Bill Elenbark - "Cigarettes Will Kill You"
Third Place: Sam Dodge - "Death's Room"
Honorable Mention: Steven Smith - "Let the Gun Do the Talking"
Honorable Mention: Anthony Dragonetti - "You'll Have to Learn to Love Me the Way I Love You"
The Rowan University Prize for Poetry
First Place: Steven Harbold - "Five Poems"Second Place: Katherin Fitzpatrick - "Stories I Tell Myself"
Third Place: Kate Peterson - "In Stitches"
Third Place: Ryan Wenzel - "The Natural World"
Third Place: Jonathan Wood - "Form Studies"
Honorable Mention: Samantha Brown - "Phase II"
Honorable Mention: Sarah Kasama - "Waves of Love"
Honorable Mention: Rebecca Force - "Is It Better?"
Honorable Mention: Jayne Dzuback - "Iron Oxide"; "Personal Poem #6"
The Rowan University Prize for Nonfiction
First Place: Melanie Pauker - "Solitude"Second Place: Bill Elenbark - "You Are a Runner, and I Am My Father's Son"
Third Place: Justin Eric Totora - "Fear and Loathing on the Road in South Jersey: The Fall of the Heads"
Honorable Mention: Jackie Cassidy - "Inked"
Honorable Mention: Steven Harbold - "The Homerun Heard Round the Neighborhood"
Honorable Mention: Sarah Kasama - "Accordian Bookcases"
2008 Winners
The Edward J. Czwartacki Award for Fiction
First Place: Bill Stewart - "Echoes"
Second Place: Joe Carlough - "I Need a Bike"
Third Place: George Jacob - "Translation" -
Third Place: David Brennan - "Things that Can’t be Seen"
Honorable Mention: Kamala Lane - "Kuwait, Briefly"
Honorable Mention: Daniel Paganelli - "The Heart of the Storm"
Honorable Mention: Steven R. Levine - "Rabbi"
The Rowan University Prize for Poetry
First Place: Jonathan Guito - "Snapshots from the Field"
Second Place: Katherin Fitzpatrick - "Poems 2008"
Third Place: Justin Davis - "The Homewrecker’s Handbook"
Honorable Mention: Janelle Tillman - "Hunger"; "Pay to Play"
Honorable Mention: Joe Carlough - "Penny Arboretum"; "Crystals"; "Passion fruit"
Honorable Mention: David Brennan - "Brother, Sister"
Honorable Mention: Joan Hanna - "Dragonflies"; "Chicago"
Honorable Mention: Anthony Belluscio - "Feeling 'Goodness'"
Honorable Mention: Calley Steel - "Finding Daddy"
The Rowan University Prize for Nonfiction
First Place: Rebecca Bland - "Snuff"Second Place: David Brennan - "Wonderland"
Honorable Mention: Christina Weil - "Never There"
Honorable Mention: Mike Breuning - "Realization through Service"
Honorable Mention: Gabriel Arnold - "Holes in My Pockets"