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Rules subject to update

Eligibility

If you're an undergraduate enrolled at the University of Michigan—Dearborn for at least six hours during the Summer 2024, Fall 2024, or Winter 2025 semesters, you’re eligible to enter the Writing Contest.

You may submit work in up to three categories but only one entry per category. You may not submit the same entry in multiple categories. Winning a first-place award in a category makes you ineligible to enter that category in subsequent years.

All entries must be your original work; for collaboratively-created projects, include the names of all authors/creators and detail the contributions of each individual on the entry form.

Entries may not have been previously published (except in student publications).

Final submission deadline is Friday, May 9, 2025 at 5:00 p.m. Winners will be posted by June 20, 2025.

Awards will be reviewed and approved by the University of Michigan-Dearborn. In the case of debts owed to the University, awards will be applied to outstanding balances.

Award winners in the Bill Linn Fiction Category agree to have their work shared privately with the Bill Linn family.

Categories

Poetry: May be of any length. Up to 3 poems as a single entry

Bill Linn Fiction Prize: Up to 30 double-spaced pages; one story per entrant

Creative Non-fiction: Up to 30 double-spaced pages; one essay per entrant

Honors Writing: Writing completed for any Honors course, including COMP 110 & 220

First-year Writing: Writing completed in COMP 105, 106, 227, 270 & 280

Researched Writing: e.g., the critical essay or other researched writing making use of secondary and/or primary sources; up to 30 double-spaced pages

Writing Through Image and Sound: E.g., Web-based writing, digital films with scripts, music and scores, projects that incorporate both text, sound, and/or visual elements

Writing in the Public Sphere: Writing completed in Academic Service-Learning courses, service learning or community-based writing projects, projects related to advocacy or activism, writing about current events

Scientific / Technical Writing: Writing completed in COMP 270, researched projects and/or investigative reports in engineering and natural sciences

Manuscript Format

To ensure objectivity, you must invent a Pen Name. A pen name is a fictitious name that is not your legal name. Your legal name can only appear on the entry form. Neither the judges nor the administrators of the contest will know your identity until the winners have been determined. Type your pen name only on every page of your manuscript.

Each written manuscript must be typed, double-spaced, and uploaded using the online submission system. Label your file with the title only (or titles, for poetry) of your manuscript, ex. Tom's Left Foot.doc. 

For multiple media projects that include sound/pictures and/or video that exceed data uploading restrictions, submit a link to your work online via Word document and follow the regular submission process.

Congratulations to the winners of the 2025 51��Ƶ-Dearborn Writing Awards

Special thanks to our 51��Ƶ-Dearborn judging panel and external judges:

Camron Amin, Paul Draus, Tobin Dykstra, Jon Haller, Kristin Bartley Lenz, Reb Livingston, Tony Luckett, Kyhl Lydndgaard, Anna Muller, PF Potvin, Harmony Reppond, Alicia Schaeffer, John Taylor

Researched Writing 

First Place: Fallon McCue, “Lesbianism, Love, and the Lavender Scare: Queer Identity in Poetry during the Cold War, 1950s-1980s” (tied for 1st place)

First Place: Emily Gonzales, “Two Can Play That Game: Exploiting the Other Only to Become the Other in Joseph Losey’s Monsieur Klein (1976)”&�Բ�����;(tied for 1st place)

Second Place: Alexander Gregorio, “We Will Always Be Here”

Honorable Mention

• Madison Chervenak, “Facets of Hypnosis and the Cognitive Interview on Eyewitness Memory Recall and Its Potential Effectiveness on Children and Adults”
• Jenny Huynh, “The Search for Meaning: An Analysis of the Human Life” 

Science/Technical Writing

First Place: Alexis Schwarz , “What is the Primary Factor Driving the Evolution of Social Cooperation in Hymenoptera?”

Second Place: Nabila Jeba, “Investing in Resveratrol as a Potential Therapeutic Agent in Melanoma Treatment”

Third Place: Madison Chervenak, “First, Last, and…Nothing In-Between?: The Serial Positions Effect”

Honorable Mention

• Yara Mashal, “The Biochemical and Metabolic Consequences of Gaucher Disease” 
• Aya Muthanna, “GreenBox Business Concept Paper”

Writing in the Public Sphere

First Place: Saumya Arora, “Teacher Diversity: PCEP’s Missing Element”

Second Place: Zeinab Farhat, “The Fight for Clean Air and Environmental Justice in Dearborn’s South End”

Third Place:  Aya Muthanna, “Living in the Shadow of Industry: Metro Detroit and Pollution”

Honorable Mention

• Alyssa Fakih, “Philosophy in The Hunger Games: A Reflection on Power, Perception, and Moral”
• Heather McNeilly, “Current Event: Water Shut-off Prevention Proposal”

First-Year Writing

First Place: Andrew Marshall, “The N Word”

Second Place: May Thazin, “Generational Divides: Medusa as a Symbol”

Third Place: Rayyan Ateequi, “Less Tax from Less Trash”

Honorable Mention

• Nabaa Almaiki, “Reclaiming an Identity”
• Elise Macuga, “Human: A Narrative Essay”

Honors

First Place: Hannah Tial, “Unknown Identity”

Second Place: Jenny Huynh, “The Red on My Face is the Color of My Love”

Third Place: Saumya Arora, “My Invisible String”

Honorable Mention

• Alexander Gregorio, “Shattering the Glass Cage”
• Wallace Bowie II, “Pews in Theatres, Pulpits in Halls: Detroit's Black Church's Response to Urban Renewal (A Pictorial Essay)”

Writing Through Image & Sound

First Place: Wallace Bowie II, “How the Black Church Shaped My Purpose”

Second Place: Syeda Muntaha, “Detroit in the Eyes of an Immigrant”

Third Place: Joshua Irabor, “Rachel”

Honorable Mention

• Meredith Henderson, “A Mosaic”
• Layal Fadi Saab, “Silence”

Bill Linn Fiction Prize

First Place: Tuqa Alshemry, “The Trapper Shack”

Second Place: Rowan Buehner, “The Privilege of Forgetting”

Third Place: Fallon McCue, “Empty Promise”

Honorable Mention

• Shamse Aziz, “The Red Blossom's Arrow”
• Lillian Samulski, “Figures”

Poetry

First Place: Andrew Marshall, “The Boogeyman” 

Second Place: Nicole Dickson, “I cut, on the inside”

Third Place: Ana Gonzalez Valencia, “The 43 of Ayotzinapa”

Honorable Mention

• Shamse Aziz, “Spring Blossoms”
• LeAisha Jefferson, “My Next Tattoo”

Creative Non-Fiction

First Place: Sedrah Al-Khateeb, “Wearing My Identity: Between Cultures and Beyond Labels”

Second Place: Ailen Estrada, “The Old Me is Still Me and Maybe the Real Me”

Third Place: Aya Muthanna, “The Big Holiday”

Honorable Mention

• Suhan Idriss, “It's the Small Things”
• Nabila Jeba, “Sidewalks”