FemUn Awards

Annual Essay Prizes  
English - Spanish
Adela Zamudio | Graduate Student Essay Prize Emilia Pardo Bazán | Creative Writing and Artistic Creation

Adela Zamudio Essay Prize

Call for Previously Published Works for the “Adela Zamudio Award” (2023)It is a great pleasure for Feministas Unidas Inc. to announce the 2024 call for the “Adela Zamudio Award.” The objective of this award is to recognize the best peer reviewed published work (book, article, or chapter of an edited volume) by a current member of Feministas Unidas Inc. The works that can participate in this call must include some of these areas: feminist studies, gender studies, queer studies, transatlantic studies, and studies related to literature and film that combine issues of race and gender. The selection committee is drawn from officers and members of Femnistas Unidas Inc. and past recipients. The award will be presented during the guaranteed session hosted by FemUn at the MLA Annual Convention, and later the announcement will be posted on the Feministas Unidas Inc. website.

The rules of the contest are as follows:

  1. The work (book, article, or chapter of a collective book) must have been published between January 1, 2023 and December 31, 2023
  2.  The person who applies to this call must be a member of an institution of higher education and be part of FemUn (membership can be paid at the time of submission of the work). 
  3. The work should be written in English, Portuguese or Spanish. 
  4. Declaration that this work is not being simultaneously considered for another award. 
  5. The submission is made using the following Google form: https://forms.gle/7Jf9z1KbttF4NvrE7 which will request to attach the following documents: a) a CV in PDF format; b) a document in PDF format that includes the following information: name, current affiliation, email, publication data sent (publisher, journal name, pages, etc.); c) the work in anonymous PDF format where no data from either the publication or the person writing it is shown. If you have any questions, contact Ana I. Simón Alegre (aisimon@adelphi.edu). This award does not accept submissions via email. 
  6. Those interested in participating in this award must do so before September 1, 2024.  

The Awards:
The winner will receive:

  1. A year of free membership in FemUn.
  2. A online certificate of having won the contest.
  3. A monetary prize of $350 (USD) for the work that places first and $150 (USD) for the work that places second.
  4. The winners will have the opportunity to choose from a) including being interviewed for publication in the newsletter; b) taking part in one of the Zoom meetings organized by FemUn; or c) having a review of their work published in the journal Ámbitos Feministas.

    5.  

    Past winners of the Adela Zamudio Essay Prize

    2023
    First Prize: Rebeca L. Hey-Colón  (Temple University) for her essay, “Chronic Illness and Transformation in Gloria Anzaldúa’s Puddles." 
    Second Prize: Vanesa Miseres (University of Notre Dame) for her essay, “Cooking and Feminism Through Latin American Literature.”    

    2022
    First Prize: Eva París-Huesca (Ohio Wesleyan University) for her essay, “Let Us Not Forget: Female Agency and Historical (Dis)remembering in Patricia Ferreira’s Film Sé quién eres.”
    Second Prize: Luz Ainaí Morales Pino (Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima, Perú) for her essay, “Moribundas habladoras: contestaciones al ideario patriarcal en El Conspirador (1892), Incurables (1905) y La rosa muerta (1914).” .    

    2021 
    First Prize:     Patrick Ridge (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University) for his essay "Thunder and Terror: Storm as Allegory in Tatiana Huezo’s Tempestad".    

    2020 
    First Prize:     Thomas Antorino (Loyola University MD) for his essay "Gender and the Question of Modernity in Early Twentieth-Century Spain: De-Essentializing Femininity in Ángela Barco's 'Fémina' (1910)".    

    2019
    First Prize:     Alejandra Aguilar Dornelles (Albany-SUNY) for her essay “Activismo, literatura y cambio social en el Caribe hispano: aproximación en tres movimientos.” 
    Second Prize: Lorraine Ryan (University of Birmingham): “Maternal Identities and Abject Equivalence in Biutiful”.

    2018
    First Prize: Sharon Keefe-Ugalde     (Texas State University) for her essay: "Las poetas de la generación del 50 y la imaginería indumentaria".
    Second Prize: Rebecca M. Bender (Kansas State University) for her essay: "Fashion, Ekphrasis, and the Avant-Garde Novel: Carmen de Burgos's La mujer fantástica (1924)".

    CF Unpublished papers “Graduate Student Essay Prize, Emilia Pardo Bazán”  

    It is a great pleasure for Feministas Unidas Inc. to announce the annual “Graduate Student Essay Prize, Emilia Pardo Bazán” (2023). The purpose of the essay prize is to promote gender and feminist scholarship by those who are entering our profession, are currently graduate students and members of Feministas Unidas Inc. for the outstanding unpublished paper in the areas of feminist studies, gender studies, queer studies, transatlantic studies, and studies related to works of literature and cinema that combine race and gender issues. The selection committee is drawn from officers and members of Feministas Unidas Inc. and past recipients. The award will be presented during the guaranteed session hosted by Feministas Unidas Inc at the MLA Annual Convention, and the announcement will be posted on the Feministas Unidas Inc.  website. FemUn reserves the right not to award the prize in any given year. 

    The rules of the contest are as follows:

    1.  An anonymous unpublished paper (PDF format), between 7,500 to 9,000 words, 1-5 spaced, including notes and works cited and includes notes using the “Editorial Guidelines” of Ámbitos Feministas. 
    2. The graduate student has to be a member of FU (membership can be paid at the time of submission). 
    3. The paper should be written in English, Portuguese or Spanish. 
    4. Declaration that this work a) is not being simultaneously considered for another award or for publication in another medium; and b) that the work has not engaged in any form of plagiarism. 
    5. The submission is made using the following Google form: https://forms.gle/wzb5wxt8gZaRYxtf7 which will request to attach the following documents: a.- C.V in PDF format; b.- A document in PDF format with the following information: Name, current affiliation, email and title of the unpublished paper; c.-The anonymous unpublished paper in PDF format (between 7,500 to 9,000 words, double-spaced, including notes and works cited including notes and works cited and includes notes using the “Editorial Guidelines” of Ámbitos Feministas). Please make sure that your unpublished paper does not have any personal information or affiliation included in the text or in the notes. If you have any questions contact Ana I. Simón Alegre (aisimon@adelphi.edu). This award does not allow submissions via email. 
    6. Those interested in participating in this award must do so before November 30, 2024   

    The Award The winner will receive:

    1. A year of free membership in FemUn.
    2. A online certificate of having won the contest.
    3. A monetary prize of $200 (USD)
    4. Publication of the essay in the journal Ámbitos Feministas. The winning essay will receive corresponding editorial comments from the editor of Ámbitos Feministas in preparation for publication.

      5.  

    Past winners of the Feministas Unidas Inc. Essay Prize for Graduate Students

    •  2023  Nora René Muñiz Hernández ,  Princeton University. “Escatón con glitter: las protestas feministas en Ciudad de México en 2019-2020."
    •  2022 María Victoria Muñoz Cortizo, University of Florida. “Aventuras de la liminalidad: la transgresión de los límites del género gauchesco en Las aventuras de la China Iron de Gabriela Cabezón Cámara. Un estudio biopolítico.”
    • 2021  Ángela Acosta,  The Ohio State University . “Imagining Queer Futures through the Autobiographical Self: Queer Womanhood in Elena Fortún’s Oculto sendero.”
    • 2020   | 2019 No winner selected these years.   
    • 2018 Paola Uparella, University of Notre Dame. “Guaman Poma y la güergüenza colonial”.
    • 2017 No winner selected this year.
    • 2016 April Knupp, Arizona State University. “Disability and Illness in Lina Meruane’s Sangre en el ojo: A Disability Theory Approach.”
    • 2016 Lilianne Lugo Herrera, University of Miami. "Melancolía y autoexposición: Los perturbados entre lilas de Alejandra Pizarnik y Melancolía y manifestaciones de Lola Arias".
    • 2015 Vera Coleman, Arizona State University-Tempe. "El huso en el centro del universo: el entrelazamiento cuántico en la poesía visual de Cecilia Vicuña".
    • 2014 Francisca Aguiló Mora, University of Miami . "Memory Mambo de Achy Ovejas: bailando al son de lo local en un imaginario post-nacional".
    • 2013 Jennifer Byron, Arizona State University at Tempe.“Wordtoy: La colección de poesía digital de Belén Gaché que desmantela la noción de la literatura tradicional y la etiqueta de la escritura femenina”.
    • 2011 Betsy Dahms."Shamanic Urgency and Two-Way Movement as Writing Style in the Works of Gloria Anzaldúa".
    • 2010 Olena Shkatulo, Indiana University. “Spain, 'Others', and European Modernity in Pardo Bazán's Parisian Travel Narratives.”
    • 2009 Ruth Brown, University of Kentucky. "El activismo local de Maquilapolis: armonizando la mirada femenina con una política de lugar".
    • 2008 Nadina Olmedo, University of Kentucky.“Gótico y género: El viaje decapitado de La mujer desnuda.”
    • 2007 Janice Breckenridge, Hiram College.“Performing Memory and Identity: Albertina Carri’s Los rubios.”
    • 2006 Debra Faszer-McMahon, UC Irvine.“Women and the Discourse of Underdevelopment in Rosa Chacel’s Memorias de Leticia Valle."
    • 2005 Emily Hind.“De Rosario Castellanos al Hombre Ilustre, o, entre dicho y hecho hay un problemático pecho”.
    • 2004 Jana Francesca Gutiérrez, Auburn University .“Finally Free: The Female Artist and the City in Dulce Maria Loynaz’s Jardin.”
    • 2003 Amy Bell, Texas Wesleyan University. “Razing Their Voices: Carmen de Burgo’s Subtextual Revisions of the Works of José Zorrilla and Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer.”

    CF Unpublished Creative Writing and Artistic Creation Awards  

    It is a great pleasure for Feministas Unidas Inc. to announce the 2024 call for the first “Unpublished Creative Writing (Poetry, Short Stories, etc.) and Artistic Creation Awards.” The objective of these awards is to acknowledge and celebrate creative works in the field of writing and artistic expression that promote feminist ideas, explore the intersection of race, gender, and class, and amplify voices of women, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and anyone who utilizes written and/or artistic expression to champion a more inclusive and diverse society. The selection committee is drawn from officers and members of FemUn and past recipients. The award will be presented during the guaranteed session hosted by FemUn at the MLA Annual Convention, and later the announcement will be posted on the Feministas Unidas Inc. website. 

    The rules of the contest are as follows:

    1.   For the creative writing award, please submit an anonymous, unpublished work in PDF format with a maximum of 8,000 words. The work should be 1-5 spaced and follow the “Editorial Guidelines” of Ámbitos Feministas. 
    2. For the artistic creation award, please submit an anonymous, unpublished work in PDF format with a file size of less than 100 MB. The work should include a maximum of 5 color images and a brief description (200 words) of the project. 
    3. The work should be written in English, Portuguese or Spanish. 
    4. Declaration that this work a) is not being simultaneously considered for another award or for publication in another medium; and b) that the work has not engaged in any form of plagiarism. 
    5. The submission is made using the following Google form https://forms.gle/J2iLbe7nL8UZDAdRA which will request to attach the following documents: a) a CV in PDF format; b) a document in PDF format that includes the following information: name, email, title; c) the work in anonymous PDF format where no data from the author. If you have any questions, contact Ana I. Simón Alegre (aisimon@adelphi.edu). This award does not accept submissions via email. 
    6. Those interested in participating in this award must do so before October 30, 2024. 

    The Award The winner will receive:

    1. A year of free membership in Feministas Unidas Inc.
    2. A online certificate of having won the contest.
    3. A monetary prize of $75 (USD)
    4. The winning entries for both the creative writing and artistic creation awards will be published in the journal Ámbitos Feministas. The winner of the creative writing award will receive editorial feedback from the Ámbitos Feministas editor to help prepare their work for publication 
    5. The winners will have the opportunity to choose from a) including being interviewed for publication in the newsletter or b) taking part in one of the Zoom meetings organized by Feministas Unidas Inc. 

    Past winners of the Feministas Unidas Inc. Creative Award

    •  2023 Creación literaria: Angela Acosta por su trabajo, “Poetic Tributes to 'las Sinsombrero': The Legacies of Modern Spanish Women”  2023 Creación Artística: Teresa Irene BarreraFigueroa por su trabajo “Brujas”

 Feministas Unidas Inc. Awards Guidelines - English - Spanish (pdf)