Karen Dandurand Lifetime Achievement Award

Barbara McCaskill, Distinguished Research Professor at University of Georgia

Selection Committee: Jennifer Putzi (Chair), Andreá Williams, Sabrina Evans, Mollie Barnes, Don James McLaughlin, Caroline Wigginton

Book Award

Fair Copy: Relational Poetics and Antebellum American Women’s Poetry by Jennifer Putzi (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021)

Available here

Honorable Mentions

Slavery, Capitalism, and Women’s Literature: Economic Insights of American Women Writers, 1852-1869 by Kristin Allukian (University of Georgia Press, 2023)

Available here

The Only Wonderful Things The Creative Partnership of Willa Cather & Edith Lewis by Melissa J. Homestead (Oxford University Press, 2021)

Available here

Selection Committee: Lori Merish, Elizabeth Young, Frances Smith Foster

Edition Award

The Selected Works of Ora Eddleman Reed: Author, Editor, and Activist for Cherokee Rights edited by Cari M. Carpenter and Karen L. Kilcup (University of Nebraska Press, 2024)

Available here

Honorable Mentions:

Memoirs of the Life, Religious Experience, Ministerial Travels, and Labours of Mrs. Elaw edited by Kimberly D. Blockett (University of Delaware Press, 2026)

Available here

Selection Committee: Laura Laffrado (Chair), Stephanie Tavera, Theresa Strouth Gaul

Digital Edition Award

Catharine Maria Sedgwick Online Letters (CMSOL), edited by Deborah Gussman (Project Director), Lucinda Damon-Bach, and Patricia Kalayjian

Selection Committee: Jessica DeSpain (Chair), Recovery Hub of American Women Writers Panel: Margaret Smith, Jeannette Schollaert, Tracy Rysavy, Fallon Murphy

Graduate Student Paper Award

The SSAWW is pleased to announce the winners of its 2025 Graduate Student Paper Awards, which recognize the exemplary work that graduate students presented at the recent SSAWW conference in Denver, Colorado. This contest is separate from a similar best paper award sponsored by Legacy. Awards include a prize of $250 for first place and $150 for second place. The following winning papers were selected among 29 entries: