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.
Essays from 2024
My Mother’s Planned Parenthood: A Book Sale Elegy , Nicholas Dolan
Graduate winner: 2nd place, 2024, 37th Annual Carl Neureuther Student Book Collection Competition
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
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
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
My Library is Full of Ghosts , Elsa Chanez
Graduate winner: 2nd place, 2023, 36th Annual Carl Neureuther Student Book Collection Competition
"One Book, Never Just One Story" , Ella Dopke
Undergraduate winner: 2nd place, 2023, 36th Annual Carl Neureuther Student Book Collection Competition
The Great Plains and Growing Pains , Juliet Nisly
Undergraduate winner: 1st place, 2023, 36th Annual Carl Neureuther Student Book Collection Competition
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
Confessions of an Amateur Librarian , Violet Cooper
Undergraduate winner: 1st place, 2022, 35th Annual Carl Neureuther Student Book Collection Competition
What Strange World are we Visiting Next”? “Ours , Jonah Goldberg
Undergraduate winner: 2nd place, 2022, 35th Annual Carl Neureuther Student Book Collection Competition
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
A Newlywed Soundtrack , Clarissa Tardiff
Graduate winner: 2nd place, 2022, 35th Annual Carl Neureuther Student Book Collection Competition
Essays from 2021
An Inheritance , Zenique Gardner Perry
Graduate winner: 2nd place, 2021, 34th Annual Carl Neureuther Student Book Collection Competition
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
Plants, Dishes, and Stray Bullets , Tirzah Reed
Undergraduate winner: 2nd place, 2021, 34th Annual Carl Neureuther Student Book Collection Competition
My Literary Web , Noah Slaughter
Undergraduate winner: 1st place, 2021, 34th Annual Carl Neureuther Student Book Collection Competition
Essays from 2020
Birds of a Feather , Tian Geng
Undergraduate winner: 2d place, 2020 33nd Annual Carl Neureuther Student Book Collection Competition
Grief Work: I’m Almost Ready to Feel Better , Joe Gutierrez
Graduate winner: 2d place, 2020, 33nd Annual Carl Neureuther Student Book Collection Competition
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
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
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
Finding Healing in a Dead Language , Victoria Hsu
Graduate winner: 2nd place, 2019, 32nd Annual Carl Neureuther Student Book Collection Competition
The Space Between Us, Our Common Ties , Erika Rodriguez
Graduate winner: 1st place, 2019, 32nd Annual Carl Neureuther Student Book Collection Competition
John Donne's Monuments , Maya St. Clair
Undergraduate winner: 2nd place, 2019, 32nd Annual Carl Neureuther Student Book Collection Competition
Essays from 2018
Coleccionista de Recuerdos: Memories of a Collector , Misael de la Rosa
Undergraduate winner: 1st place, 2018, 31st Annual Carl Neureuther Student Book Collection Competition