Writing Awards

Every year, the Wilmington College English Program awards prizes to students for the best writing in the categories of literary essay, short story, and poetry.

The presentation of the 2018 Wilmington College English Program writing awards will be bittersweet this year. Professor Emeritus Cliff Hardie, for whom the English Essay Award is named, died on March 3 at the age of 85.

Hardie retired in 1996 after serving 36 years on the English faculty. A creative writer at heart, he published seven volumes of poetry. However, in 2010, when Alan Frankel, class of ’65 and a current Wilmington College trustee, decided to honor him by sponsoring the previously un-funded competition, he recalled Hardie’s influence as a teacher of non-fiction writing: “So much of what I learned from him was applicable in business, where I found myself writing a lot.” Recently, Frankel remembered Hardie as “the man who taught me how to think critically and communicate effectively and a friend for more than half a century.”

Read Full Remembrance of Cliff Hardie