Awards & Prizes

The Mike Angel Award recognizes a student who has faced extreme hardship in completing his or her degree, and has demonstrated distinction, extraordinary merit, and perseverance as an English major. It was established by faculty and students in 1984 to honor the achievements of Mike Angel, a fine student and wonderful human being who overcame great obstacles in order to earn a B.A. in English.

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The Joyce Tayloe Horrell Award is the largest awarded by the department to any student. It was established in 1989 through the generosity of Joseph Horrell in memory of his wife Joyce Tayloe Horrell. Ms. Horrell was an Honors graduate student, a scholar of the works of the writer Henry James, and a master teacher in the English Department from 1960 until 1967.  She is remembered fondly as a brilliant member of the Department, who contributed importantly to the lives of her students, of her many friends, and of her colleagues.  The Horrell Award is conferred annually on the English major who has demonstrated the highest academic achievement overall among the graduating class.  

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The Joseph W. Houppert Prize was named for Joseph Houppert, a scholar of the English Renaissance and a distinguished member of this department from 1963 until his death in 1979. Professor Houppert was always very concerned with teaching of undergraduate students and particularly for the teaching of good writing; consequently his colleagues established this competition in his memory, with a prize to be awarded annually to the undergraduate who has written the best essay on Shakespeare during the academic year.

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English Honors is a selective program within the English major. One in which students take intensive writing and research seminars and develop a lengthy critical thesis or creative work over the course of three semesters. Alumni of English Honors have gone on to have successful careers in medicine, education, law, the arts, business, and government. An Award is given each year to the student with the most outstanding overall record in English Honors. This award is named for Sandy Mack, a truly legendary teacher of Shakespeare. He developed the English Honors Program and guided it for a decade. Sandy is now retired, but his name and his legacy endure in this award. 

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The Sara Ann Soper English Undergraduate Service Award was established by Shannon Altman, who graduated in 1999 with a double degree in English and Education.  While she was an undergraduate, Shannon designed and implemented an undergraduate tutoring service at nearby Eleanor Roosevelt High School. She was also the very best sort of gifted and energetic student. Two years after she graduated, she gave the department a significant gift to endow the Sara Ann Soper English Undergraduate Service Award to honor a graduating senior who has volunteered time, energy, and commitment to community service.  Shannon named the award after her mother, as a testimony to her achievements. 

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The minor in Creative Writing offers students the opportunity to engage deeply with their own writing and that of their peers in a graduated series of workshops.  Each year, we honor an outstanding creative writing minor with The Henrietta Spiegel Creative Writing Award.  Henrietta Spiegel was the widow of a University of Maryland faculty member who, following her husband’s death, completed her B.A. in English here in 1989 at the age of 85 with a G.P.A. of 3.9.  She died in 1996 at the age of 92.  She remains the oldest person ever to complete an undergraduate degree at the University of Maryland. According to Ripley’s Believe It or Not, she is also the oldest woman ever inducted into Phi Beta Kappa.  Upon the completion of her degree, she established this award to honor undergraduate work in creative writing judged by the creative writing faculty to be the most outstanding.  

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For the English Department’s spring and fall commencement ceremonies, Undergraduate English Studies invites one of our graduating seniors to speak on stage.  A speaker is chosen from self-nominating applicants who audition for the Director of Undergraduate Studies.  Although only one speaker is chosen, the Department now recognizes other exceptional applicants with honorable mentions.

In honor of American essayist, journalist, novelist, and short fiction writer, Katherine Anne Porter, The English Department will award the best short fiction entry submitted by a University of Maryland student. 

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