Yale Writers Sweep Norman Mailer Writing Awards

November 15, 2015
Every year, Yale students and alumni are extremely well represented in the Norman Mailer Writing Awards, a national competition administrated by the National Council of Teachers of English (the NCTE).  According to Fred Strebeigh’s accounting, over the six years of the competition’s existence, 50% of all winners of the nonfiction award have been from Yale.  Additionally, a total of 41% of all honorees (winners, finalists, and semi-finalists) over those years have been Yale students or alumni.  This year, the winner was Eric Boodman, a recent alum. His winning entries can be found here: http://www.ncte.org/awards/nmwa/winners

It is worth a special note that the three Yale winners from over the last six years all produced their award-winning essays while working with Anne Fadiman. 

What is especially astonishing is that this year every single finalist and semifinalist in this category is a Yale student or alum. The finalists are Jennifer Gersten, Devon Geyelin, Jesse Schreck, and Yanan Wang.  The semifinalists are Michelle Hackman, Katherine Lin, Sophie Mendelson, Katy Osborn, Jacob Osborne. I should add, too, that Yale was represented in the poetry category as well—Cynthia Hua is a finalist and Jordana Cepelewicz a semifinalist.  Congratulations to all on such an unprecedented achievement!