The Department of Literatures in English celebrates the winners of the 2024 Philip Freund Prize for Creative Writing in recognition of excellence in publication: Andrew Boryga, Aisha Abdel Gawad, C. Michelle Lindley, Amanda Moore
The alumni prize is supported by the Philip Freund '29 endowment and comes with a $5000 award and an invitation to participate in the Freund Prize Reading in the fall semester.
The 2024 Freund Prize Reading will take place on Thursday, September 26 at 5:00 p.m. in Rhodes-Rawling Auditorium, Klarman Hall KG70. Recipients will read from their award-winning work. Books by the authors will be available for purchase thanks to Ithaca's local cooperative bookstore Buffalo Street Books, and a book signing will follow the reading.
More about the 2024 Freund Prize recipients:
Andrew Boryga (BA ‘13), Novelist & Journalist
Andrew Boryga (he/him) grew up in the Bronx and now lives in Miami with his family. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic, and been awarded prizes by Cornell University, The University of Miami, The Susquehanna Review, and The Michener Foundation. He attended the Tin House Writer’s Workshop and has taught writing to college students, elementary school students, and incarcerated adults. Victim is his debut novel.
Aisha Abdel Gawad (MFA ‘13), Writer
Aisha Abdel Gawad's (she/her) debut novel, Between Two Moons, was published by Doubleday in 2023. Between Two Moons is the recipient of a New York City Book Award, a finalist for the Gotham Book Prize, and was longlisted for the 2024 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction and the 2023 New American Voices Award. Aisha's short fiction and essays have appeared in publications such as the Kenyon Review, American Short Fiction, Bon Appetit, and Literary Hub. She is a high-school English teacher based in Connecticut.
C. Michelle Lindley (MFA ‘22), Writer
C. Michelle Lindley (She/Her) is a writer from California. Her work can be found in Conjunctions, The Georgia Review, and elsewhere. She is a National Endowment for the Arts Fellow for 2024 and has an MFA in Creative Writing from Cornell University. Her debut novel, The Nude, is available now.
Amanda Moore (MFA ‘01), Poet & Educator
Amanda Moore’s (she/her) debut collection of poetry, Requeening, was selected for the National Poetry Series by Ocean Vuong and published by HarperCollins/Ecco in 2021. Her poems and essays have appeared in journals and anthologies including Best New Poets, ZZYZVA, Ploughshares, LitHub, and Poets & Writers. An editor and reader for Women’s Voices for Change and Bull City Press, Amanda also runs writing workshops and community classes, translates poems by contemporary Costa Rican women, and teaches high school English. She lives by the beach in the Outer Sunset neighborhood of San Francisco.
This reading is part of the Fall 2024 Barbara and David Zalaznick Reading Series. The series also will host poet Elisa Gabbert on September 19, writer Rowan Ricardo Phillips on October 17 and author Sigrid Nunez on November 7.
