The 2024-25 academic year is now complete. Here as May comes to a close and spring starts to hint of summer, we in the program applaud every one of our graduate students for your efforts and achievements over the past academic year. In addition, the program bestows three particular distinctions at this time, each year. The first such honor is the Graduate English Christie Bowl, named for the late Joannes Christie, who established and for many years chaired the Mercy English Program. The award is determined by the collective graduate faculty and recognizes one graduating student for consistent academic excellence, classroom performance, and collegiality throughout their entire time in the grad program, as well as for other contributions to Mercy and the university community, such as submissions to or editorial work on Red Hyacinth, work as a teaching assistant/learning assistant, and/or other related work and scholarship performed beyond Mercy’s perimeter.

• The winner of the 2025 Graduate English Christie Bowl is Nelson Orellana

Next up is the Howard Canaan Thesis Award for Innovation. This award honors the late Dr. Canaan, an esteemed Shakespeare scholar at Mercy who was also a lifelong advocate of the value and power of speculative fiction, science fiction, and other genre fiction often looked down-upon by the academic establishment. This award recognizes a thesis that does one or some of the following: approaches literary analysis in a unique, unexpected, or unusual way; reconsiders and otherwise treats with dignity genre fiction; or involves interdisciplinary studies.

• The winner of the 2025 Howard Canaan Thesis Award for Innovation is J’nai Spires for her thesis “Creative Writing’s Rise and Its Positive Impact on Mental Health.”

Next is the overall Thesis of the Year award. Selecting one study to honor for this award is always extraordinarily difficult, as thesis students across the program, over the past twelve months, have produced numerous high-level and even publishable works, each of which is worthy and respectable in its own right. The one paper receiving this distinction excelled in all areas and was a standout study.

• The winner of the 2025 Thesis of the Year Award is Micah Hankins for his thesis “Harnessing Fiction Genre to De-Stereotype Marginalized Characters.“

It is always difficult to locate any single person or work to honor for any of these awards out of the many exceptional students graduating each school year from our program, and the many exceptional theses submitted for the degree. So although the program recognizes these honorees and works, know that we also recognize all members of the graduating MA class of 2024-25 for your efforts and work across your time in the program. Congratulations, everyone. Here’s to the summer ahead!