Writing Contest 2026 Winners, from left to right: Gianna Izzo ('26), Madeline Fries ('29), Shay Mahoney ('27), Sam Rotolo ('29), Cormac Boardman Abbey ('26), Isa Cruz ('26), and Jade Ferrante ('26)
Last night, the Writing Department hosted its annual Writing Contest, coordinated by Professor Jim Stafford. This event celebrates students writing from in and out of the classroom.There were first and second place winners in multiple categories, and each first place winner read their winning piece(s) at the event. The winners of each category are listed below.
Congratulations to all of these talented students!
Short Story
First place: Cormac Boardman Abbey, "Under the Immortal Bridge"
Second place: Sam Rotolo, "Acid for My Son"
Poetry
First place: Shay Mahoney, "Abecedarian for This Body Being a Body"
Second place: Jade Ferrante, "Snow Shoed Bill: a whiter jubilee"
Personal Essay/Creative Nonfiction
First place: Jade Ferrante, "Geo Girls"
Second place: Cathy Plizga, "Education of a Child on the Move"
First-Year Essay
First place: Madeline Fries, "From Product to Promise"
Second place: Ally Dheeradhada, "Um, are filler words like actually bad?"
Critical Essay
First place: Gianna Izzo, "What are we Really Afraid of?: Autism as a Scapegoat for Ableism"
Second place: Isa Cruz, "Decolonizing Methodologies and Empowering Ethics"
The event also included the Louise Cannon Poetry Prize as part of the ceremony. This award commemorates the longtime contributions of Louise Cannon, assistant professor at Ithaca College and an accomplished poet. The Louise Cannon Poetry Prize is made possible through the generosity of the M. Louise Cannon Fund. This year, the guest judge is Heather Bartlett, Assistant Professor in the English Department at SUNY Cortland and founding editor of the online literary magazine Hoxie Gorge Review.
The winner of this year's Louise Cannon Poetry Prize was junior Writing major Shay Mahoney! Congratulations, Shay!