The Montserrat Writing Prize competition is open to students currently enrolled in Montserrat. The selection committee, composed of the director and cluster directors of Montserrat, presents the award every spring semester to three students for papers written in their Montserrat seminars during the current academic year. Submissions may include critical essays, creative writing, film reviews, scientific reports, and reflections, to name a few. Questions should be addressed to Pr. Alison Ludden (aludden@holycross.edu), director of Montserrat.
Grateful acknowledgement is made to an anonymous donor for the funds to support the prize.
Winning Papers from 2024
Sleep Dealer: A Grim Warning to Humankind, Maia Nicolosi
Transformative Mindfulness: Exploring the Role of Mindfulness in Mitigating Cognitive Biases and Political Polarization, Olivia Paulsen
Stains of Emotion: Stories Carved by the Sun, Lucy Umland
Winning Papers from 2023
In a State of Nervous Conditions: Gender Relations in Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Groundbreaking Novel, Evan Garcia
Seeing Beneath the Surface: Using Critical Race Theory to Uncover Racial Inequities in the U.S. Public School System, Lauren Harkins
Mítos Boricuas, Ignacio A. Sánchez Ramos
Winning Papers from 2022
Emotional Geographies: Head, Heart, Time, and Place, Grace C. Conroy
A Roman Diary, Sarah Yebin Park
Need for Reform: The Prison System and Deaf Inmates, Catherine Pellini
Winning Papers from 2021
Mamfakinch, Annabel DeGroat
The Phoenix, Fernanda Perez-Alvarez
Sundae, Sarah Synan
Winning Papers from 2020
See, Judge, Act: Restorative Justice and Catholic Social Teaching’s Impact on American Incarceration, Maxim Caron
Of Moose and Men (and Moose-Men), Henry Cavanaugh
Human Nature in the Natural World, Alexandra Sawasciuk