Submissions for sustainability essay contest due March 19

University Writing and the Academic Sustainability Program are seeking submissions for the first annual Outstanding Sustainability Essay Award. This award recognizes exceptional student writing in prose with a focus on sustainability. Submissions are due March 19 with a maximum of 1,000 words.

Participants should respond to the following prompt:

Likely you are reading this prompt on a screen. Look up. Where are you? How is your environment affecting you? How is your presence shaping it? In our increasingly virtual worlds, tethered to screens for many hours for work and play alike, our physical surroundings can fade from our consciousness. Moreover, many of us need never know the origins of the many products we depend upon — the mineral, plant and animal resources that power our lives lie veiled behind complex industrial systems. But we remain enmeshed in the Earth. In a brief personal essay, we ask you to recount an interaction you have had with the physical world (whether “natural” or built), reflecting on how you and your environment affected each other.

Two winners will be honored at the University Writing Awards Ceremony in May 2023. They will receive engraved trophies and Auburn University Bookstore gift cards.

More information is available online.