The Charles C. Dawe Memorial Award

The Charles C. Dawe Memorial Award to Encourage Innovation in Publishing provides a $2,000 grant each year to a junior in the English Department. The purpose of the grant is to pay for production costs for a prototype of an innovative publication project, print or electronic, to be completed during the student's senior year. All juniors majoring in the department are eligible to apply during the fall of their junior year (groups of students are also eligible). The goal of the award is to encourage new ideas and provide the winning student/s with an opportunity to produce an actual publication to launch their writing careers. The award is made possible through a grant from a generous grandparent of a Professional Writing alum who is specifically interested in encouraging Carnegie Mellon majors in the English Department who want to pursue careers in journalism, creative, professional, or technical writing.

For information on how the award is judged, please see the 2011 Dawe Judging Criteria [.doc].

The application deadline for the 2011 award has passed.

Past Winners

Recent winners of the Charles C. Dawe Memorial Award include:

2011: Inez Pujos for "Print-Oriented Bastards: A Literary Journal" and Ila Foley, Lauren Hirata, and Rebecca Chen for "ARETE: A Publication for Women of the Panhellenic Council"

"Print-Oriented Bastards" is an independent press project that presents a high-quality, biannual print journal focusing on the work of new and emerging writers. Additionally, the project aims to build community among emerging writers. "ARETE: A Publication for Women of the Panhellenic Council," is an internet magazine bringing a range of relevant news—on social issues, health, campus and alumni events, and lifestyle issues—to sorority women on campus as well as to the broader community of women at Carnegie Mellon.

2008: Elizabeth Barsotti for "Mint"

"Mint" is a trading card/literary journal hybrid that is designed to encourage people not ordinarily involved with poetry or traditional literary magazines. The idea is to encourage the display, collecting, and trading of poems by both recognized poets and the local community.

2007: Kristen Lukiewski and Reina Takahashi for "Thirty-Four Kites"

For "Thirty-Four Kites," Kristen and Reina solicited and published a collection of writing and art from men on Pennsylvania's death row. The work includes a series of postcards featuring art by the inmates and designed to encourage readers to respond to their work.

2006: Tria Chang, Margaret Szeto, and Shuo He for ³Big Straw²

This project was a proposal for a magazine to educate, increase awareness, and demonstrate the complexity of the culture of Asian Pacific Americans.