Vázquez-Valarezo, Audre Lorde winners announced

The Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program has announced the winners of this year’s campus-wide contests that recognize excellence in poetry, creative expression and analytical writing.

The annual Vázquez-Valarezo Poetry Award, sponsored by Dr. Jeanneth Vázquez, professor of Spanish, is designed to encourage student poets to submit their work. Entries are judged for originality, creative imagination, characterization and artistic quality.

The Audre Lorde Prize awards are named in honor of Audre Lorde (1934-1992), feminist writer and civil rights activist, to recognize excellence in scholarship in Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies at the undergraduate level.

Vázquez-Valarezo Poetry Award

The 2026 theme is “Voices of Freedom.”

First prize: "Liberty" by Madeline Hutchinson. Hutchinson is a senior from Schaumberg, Ill., majoring in English and creative writing.

Second prize: "Watching the Screen" by Wren Thul. Thul is a senior from Janesville, Wis., majoring in women, gender, and sexuality studies,  French and theatre.

Third prize: "To My Queer Siblings" by Finley Snyder. Snyder is a sophomore from Rockford, Ill., majoring in history and religion.

Audre Lorde Prize

Creative Expression

First place: "Iphigenia’s Blood, Clytemnestra’s Burden" by Alyssa Ogrodny. Ogrodny is a senior from Homer Glen, Ill., majoring in psychology, and theatre design and history. (Instructor: V. Phipps)

Second prize: "velcro" by Sarah Welker. Welker is a senior from Tinley Park, Ill., majoring in graphic design, art, and women, gender, and sexuality studies. (Instructor: Anne Heide).

Analytical Essays

First prize: "Queer Okayness & The Modernist Influence: A New Form of Queer Poetics in Ocean Vuong’s Night Sky with Exit Wounds" by Sophia Behnke Behnke is a senior from Richfield, Minn,, majoring in English and creative writing. (Instructor: Dr. Kiki Kosnick)

Second prize (tie): "Addiction and Dalits: The Impact of India’s Caste System" by Ava Jackson. Jackson is a senior from Oak Park, Ill., majoring in psychology, and women, gender, and sexuality studies, and minoring in English. (Instructor: Dr. Umme Al-wazedi)

Second prize (tie): "Transnational Surrogacy: Considering the Full Impact" by Morin Windle. Windle is a junior from North Aurora Ill., majoring in psychology, and women, gender, and sexuality studies, and creative writing. (Instructor: Dr. Umme Al-wazedi)

Honorable mention: "Sexed and Silenced: How The Round House Signals Against Rape Culture" by Gaia Splendore. Splendore is a senior from Fort Wayne, Ind., majoring in  creative writing, history and English. (Instructor: Dr. David Crowe)