The Dunbar Prize for Writing
When the Dunbar Student Life Prize was originally conceived in the 1920s, it was described as “an annual contest between, and confined to, undergraduates of [Williams] College, based on entries consisting of [writing about] student life in its social, political, educational, or religious aspects.”
Today, the Dunbar Prize for Writing stays true to the original intention of the prize; it is an award designed to encourage the efforts of promising student writers who have produced significant written work about college life in its social, political, educational, and/or religious aspects. Candidates for the prize must be currently enrolled Williams students; first-year students, sophomores, juniors, and seniors are eligible.
The 2025 Dunbar Prize is complete! Join us for a magazine launch party on May 1st at 7pm in the Sawyer Reading Room. We will celebrate the winners, eat some good snacks, and take home copies of this year’s magazine. Join us!
2025 Winners
Lily Cowles won First Prize for the short story “Pigeon Head”
Sasha Tucker won First Prize for the personal essay “Travel Diary, Study Abroad, Spring Semester 2024”
Zainab Saleem won First Prize for the personal essay “One Word at A Time”
James Johnson-Brown won Second Prize for the personal essay “Tiny Seizures Everywhere”
Kathryn Cloonan won Second Prize for the script “Flightless Birds”
Valeria Starkova won Second Prize for the personal essay “The Freshman Year We Never Had”
Analua Moreira won Third Prize for the short story “Headwaters”
Frances Leung won Third Prize for the nonfiction essay “a non-comprehensive list of ghost sightings on and around campus”
Mandy Zhao won Third Prize for the personal essay “The Healing Power of Vulnerability: Breaking Through College’s Silent Struggles”
Haley Zimmerman won Honorable Mention for the article “Students Allege Clery Act Violations”
Jessica Jiang won Honorable Mention for the poetry collection “This One Last Year”
Yeldana Talgatkyzy won Honorable Mention for the short story “Komsomol Crusaders”
Next Fall’s Dunbar Submission Criteria:
- Entries must be on a topic of student life that focuses on any local, national, or global issue affecting college students.
- Submissions can fall under any genre of writing; the selection committee seeks writing that is exemplary of its specific genre.
- Entires must be original written work and should not exceed 15 pages.
- Prose writers may submit one piece (an essay, article, academic paper, short story or other piece of prose); excerpts of longer works are welcome.
- Poets may submit up to three poems as long as submissions are within the 15-page limit.
- Selection is blind; entries should not include the student’s name.
Note: Work previously published elsewhere is not eligible for the 2026 Prize.
The submission deadline is February 1, 2026, and winners are announced early in the spring semester. Winning entries are published in a campus-wide print magazine before the end of the academic year.
Awards:
There are typically two to three awards granted in each category: First Place, Second Place, Third Place, and Honorable Mention. Cash prizes range between $250 and $2,000.
All winners will be invited to a launch party and reading when the magazine comes out.
Each winner is expected to send a note of acknowledgment to Bonnie Dunbar, great-granddaughter of James Robert Dunbar and Harriet Walton Dunbar, for whom the award is named.