Submissions for the Hopwood Contests close strictly at the time of deadline.
You can find the deadline for the contests on the Hopwood Program Home Page - CLICK HERE.
While in past years the Hopwood Program sponsored Fall and Winter contests with different deadlines, in 2021 there were consolidated into one submissions deadline. This policy will remain in effect until further notice.
A note for students graduating in December: please note that there is an earlier deadline if you plan to graduate in December. The deadline is listed on The Hopwood Program's front page.
Once you have determined your basic eligibility, please follow the below links to more detailed information on each of the contests, or scroll down to view the brief summary of each contest.
For all Hopwood Program Contests and Awards: Contest submissions should be unpublished and should not be under consideration for publication OR accepted for publication at the time of the contest deadline.
This means that no manuscript - or partial manuscript - that has been published in a medium other than a college magazine or college newspaper may be entered in any contest. However, work that has been accepted for publication but that has not appeared in print by the time of the contest deadline may be entered.
GRADUATE STUDENTS
General requirement: Must be enrolled in at least 3 credits
There is no requirement for graduate students to have a specific qualifying course.
Hopwood Contests
Other Awards Administered by The Hopwood Program
Brief summary of our contests
The Hopwood Contests
- These contests are open to all fully-enrolled University of Michigan Undergraduate and Graduate students (further eligibility requirements detailed at above link). Genres included in these contests are poetry, nonfiction, short fiction, novel, screenplay, and drama.
- These are the "big" Hopwood awards, in that there are the most number of genre categories, with the largest number of students eligible, and in that these prizes comprise the majority of the funds given each year.
- The specific prizes open to Graduate students are:
- Hopwood Drama
- Hopwood Novel
- Hopwood Screenplay
- Graduate Fiction
- Graduate Nonfiction
- Graduate Poetry
- Theodore Roethke Prize
- Hopwood Drama
- There are five other contests you can submit to in January
- The David Porter Award for Excellence in Journalism is open to all fully-enrolled University of Michigan students. This award seeks to commend outstanding student journalists whose narrative nonfiction is particularly artful, incisive, thought-provoking, literary, meaningful, and lasting. See the official award page (listed above) for specific eligibility requirements.
- The Kasdan Scholarship in Creative Writing is open to all fully-enrolled University of Michigan students, and genres included are screenplays and drama. The final judge(s) for this award are at the Kasdan Company.
- There are a number of Single Poem Contests with varying eligibility. These contests each recognize a single poem, but have separate entry requirements. Please read each page carefully. Graduate students are eligible for the following:
- The Academy of American Poets - Undergraduate Division
- The Bain-Swiggett Poetry Prize
- The Marjorie Rapaport
- The Michael R. Gutterman Award
