The Carl Neureuther Student Book Collection Essay Competition encourages students at Washington University to read for enjoyment and to develop personal libraries throughout their lives.

The competition started in 1988 and the collection contains the award-winning essays of both undergraduate and graduate students from 2003 to present. Details about the Carl Neureuther Student Book Collection Essay Competition are announced through the University Libraries.

Follow


Essays from 2024

PDF

My Mother’s Planned Parenthood: A Book Sale Elegy , Nicholas Dolan

Graduate winner: 2nd place, 2024, 37th Annual Carl Neureuther Student Book Collection Competition

PDF

A Lust Letter to Print: Understanding Human Carnality Through the Zines of the World , Eliana Jenkins

Undergraduate winner: 2nd place, 2024, 37th Annual Carl Neureuther Student Book Collection Competition

PDF

My Culture of One; Eight Relational Dances With My Books , Perry Parsons

Graduate winner: 1st place, 2024, 37th Annual Carl Neureuther Student Book Collection Competition

PDF

Unveiling the Comfort of Female Narratives: Tragedy, Identity, and Embodied Power , Brooke Sanchez

Undergraduate winner: 1st place, 2024, 37th Annual Carl Neureuther Student Book Collection Competition

Essays from 2023

PDF

My Library is Full of Ghosts , Elsa Chanez

Graduate winner: 2nd place, 2023, 36th Annual Carl Neureuther Student Book Collection Competition

PDF

"One Book, Never Just One Story" , Ella Dopke

Undergraduate winner: 2nd place, 2023, 36th Annual Carl Neureuther Student Book Collection Competition

PDF

The Great Plains and Growing Pains , Juliet Nisly

Undergraduate winner: 1st place, 2023, 36th Annual Carl Neureuther Student Book Collection Competition

PDF

Paging through Palimsests: Used Picture Books and Their Connection to Place , Danielle Ridolfi

Graduate winner: 1st place, 2023, 36th Annual Carl Neureuther Student Book Collection Competition

Essays from 2022

PDF

Confessions of an Amateur Librarian , Violet Cooper

Undergraduate winner: 1st place, 2022, 35th Annual Carl Neureuther Student Book Collection Competition

PDF

What Strange World are we Visiting Next”? “Ours , Jonah Goldberg

Undergraduate winner: 2nd place, 2022, 35th Annual Carl Neureuther Student Book Collection Competition

PDF

Out of Print, Out of the Closet: Building a Library and Community through Queer Translation , Rebecca Hanssens-Reed

Graduate winner: 1st place, 2022, 35th Annual Carl Neureuther Student Book Collection Competition

PDF

A Newlywed Soundtrack , Clarissa Tardiff

Graduate winner: 2nd place, 2022, 35th Annual Carl Neureuther Student Book Collection Competition

Essays from 2021

PDF

An Inheritance , Zenique Gardner Perry

Graduate winner: 2nd place, 2021, 34th Annual Carl Neureuther Student Book Collection Competition

PDF

Crossfires: Foreign Souls and Lands’ and Feminist Modernist Recovery in Translation , Sophie Levin

Graduate winner: 1st place, 2021, 34th Annual Carl Neureuther Student Book Collection Competition

PDF

Plants, Dishes, and Stray Bullets , Tirzah Reed

Undergraduate winner: 2nd place, 2021, 34th Annual Carl Neureuther Student Book Collection Competition

PDF

My Literary Web , Noah Slaughter

Undergraduate winner: 1st place, 2021, 34th Annual Carl Neureuther Student Book Collection Competition

Essays from 2020

PDF

Birds of a Feather , Tian Geng

Undergraduate winner: 2d place, 2020 33nd Annual Carl Neureuther Student Book Collection Competition

PDF

Grief Work: I’m Almost Ready to Feel Better , Joe Gutierrez

Graduate winner: 2d place, 2020, 33nd Annual Carl Neureuther Student Book Collection Competition

PDF

Party-Bottom Paperbacks: Cruising Used Bookstores in Search of Queer History , Matt Weinstock

Graduate winner: 1st place, 2020 33nd Annual Carl Neureuther Student Book Collection Competition

PDF

Page to Stage: A Roadmap to Comedic Playwriting , Sydney Weiss

Undergraduate winner: 1st place, 2020 33nd Annual Carl Neureuther Student Book Collection Competition

Essays from 2019

PDF

From Past to My Present: The Art of Saint Louis , Alex Evets

Undergraduate winner: 1st place, 2019, 32nd Annual Carl Neureuther Student Book Collection Competition

PDF

Finding Healing in a Dead Language , Victoria Hsu

Graduate winner: 2nd place, 2019, 32nd Annual Carl Neureuther Student Book Collection Competition

PDF

The Space Between Us, Our Common Ties , Erika Rodriguez

Graduate winner: 1st place, 2019, 32nd Annual Carl Neureuther Student Book Collection Competition

PDF

John Donne's Monuments , Maya St. Clair

Undergraduate winner: 2nd place, 2019, 32nd Annual Carl Neureuther Student Book Collection Competition

Essays from 2018

PDF

Coleccionista de Recuerdos: Memories of a Collector , Misael de la Rosa

Undergraduate winner: 1st place, 2018, 31st Annual Carl Neureuther Student Book Collection Competition