Washington University Libraries has selected the winners of the 2020 Neureuther Student Book Collection Essay Competition.
The Neureuther competition offers first and second prizes, of $1,000 and $500, to both undergraduate students and graduate students who write short essays about their personal book collections.
This year’s winners all hail from Arts & Sciences. Matt Weinstock, who is pursuing a master’s degree in fiction writing, won the top prize in the graduate category for the essay “Party-Bottom Paperbacks: Cruising Used Bookstores in Search of Queer History.” Joe Gutierrez, who is working toward a master’s in poetry, won second place with “Grief Work: I’m Almost Ready to Feel Better.”
In the undergraduate category, Sydney Weiss, a freshman majoring in psychology, took first place for the essay “Page to Stage: A Roadmap to Comedic Playwriting.” Tian Geng, a junior who is majoring in philosophy-neuroscience-psychology, won second place for “Birds of a Feather.”
Learn more and read the essays on the libraries’ website.