Calista Cummings Award

The Calista Cumings Award

An Akron schoolteacher who taught math with poetry, Calista Cumings created and edited Akron’s earliest successful literary magazine, The Akron Offering. Working with limited assistance, inadequate funding, and an inexperienced local publishing industry, she provided a forum for Midwestern authors to exchange original literature in 1849 and 1850. Her magazine only survived for twelve monthly numbers, but Cumings' editorial work, characterized by a “clear head” and a “kind heart,” was fondly remembered for many decades.

Prize:

• $100

Who can enter:

• UA graduate and undergraduate students

Submission Guidelines:

• Three copies of a scholarly work on a topic in American Literature before 1900.
• Paper must be written for a class in 2012.
• Cover sheet must include (1) student name; (2) email address; (3) current mailing address; (4) class for which the paper was written.
• Use a header with page numbers and the last name of the author on each page.