Senior Novel Project Awards, 2022
The St. Stephen's English Department is pleased to share the 2022 Senior Novel prize winners. A capstone research and writing project for 12th-grade Spartans, the assignment requires thoughtful reading and in-depth analysis of numerous classic and modern texts, as well as music lyrics and film scripts. Students spend months researching and writing their final senior novel project paper. Congratulations to this year's winners!
"The Class of 2022 took us by surprise!" Huth said. "Having three years of their high-school careers shaped by pandemic and a world where nothing was normal, we expected that a guided, but truly independent project with firm deadlines would be a high bar. But this year's class did themselves proud, and they spent their spring term crafting not only literary analyses, but also visual art, digital creations, and engaging online portfolios to showcase their exploration of their own unique topics and four texts. Bravo to all, but here are some of the projects that deserve extra accolades for creativity and commitment to the creative and academic process."
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"The Class of 2022 took us by surprise!" Huth said. "Having three years of their high-school careers shaped by pandemic and a world where nothing was normal, we expected that a guided, but truly independent project with firm deadlines would be a high bar. But this year's class did themselves proud, and they spent their spring term crafting not only literary analyses, but also visual art, digital creations, and engaging online portfolios to showcase their exploration of their own unique topics and four texts. Bravo to all, but here are some of the projects that deserve extra accolades for creativity and commitment to the creative and academic process."
Senior Novel Project Awards, 2022
Peyton Johnson
The “Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid” Award
“Meet Your Maker: 'Monsters' and Their Creators”
The Island of Dr. Moreau
Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep
Ex Machina, Alex Garland, dir. (film)
Yolanda Zheng
The “New is Not Always Better” Award
“Wailing in Lost: Tragedies During and After Modernist Era”
Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf
The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Graduate, Mike Nichols, dir. (film)
Delaney Post
The Art is Individualism Award
“Queer Subnarratives in Classic Literature”
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf
The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
Zoe Ehrlich
The “Welcome Home” Award
“What is Home? Home Lost and Home Found”
The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
We Need New Names, NoViolet Bulawayo
Purple Hibiscus, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
In the Heights, John Chu, dir. (film)
Cristian Dominguez
The Rosie the Riveter Award
“Women Have Muscles: Cross-Cultural Feminisms in Comparative Literature”
Purple Hibiscus, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Queen of the South, Arturo Perez-Reverte
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
Bridgerton, Chris Van Dusen (creator)
Ivy Fan
The Whitney Said Teach Them Well and Let Them Lead the Way Award
“Family Influence vs. Individual Empowerment: An Exploration of Personal Development”
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Little Women, Greta Gerwig, dir. (film)
Kate Kadyan
The “He/She/They/Me” Award
“Gender-Bending: Constructing and Deconstructing Gender”
Orlando, Virginia Woolf
Memoir of a Basque Lieutenant Nun, Catalia de Erauso
Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides
The Danish Girl, Tom Hooper
Wilson McCann
The Bear Grylls Award
“Man Vs. Nature: Masculinity, Conflict, and the Natural World”
Deliverance, James Dickey
Mystic River, Dennis Lehane
Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer
A Feast of Snakes, Harry Crews
Gracie Young
The “For Richer or For Poorer” Award
“The Economics of Marriage: Exploring Societal Influences in Literary Depictions of Marriage”
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
Wuthering Heights, Emily Brönte
Ari Sher
The Scarlet Letter Award
“A Woman’s Soul: The Power of Sexuality and Adultery in the Female Bildungsroman”
Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brönte
The Awakening, Kate Chopin
Jael Dammann
The “Famous People Are Just More Interesting” Award
“The Fakers That Made It: Examining Social Climbers”
Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray
Bel-Ami, Guy de Maupassant
The Custom of the Country, Edith Wharton
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
Anna Hicks
The “I Write, Therefore I am” Award
“Women Finding Power Through Metafictional Writing”
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brönte
The Color Purple, Alice Walker
Atonement, Ian McEwan
Selected Poems
Ray Swartz
The “Smells Like Teen Spirit” Award
“The Kids are Not Alright: Rebellion Against Suburbia”
The Virgin Suicides, Jeffrey Eugenides
A Visit from the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan
American Pastoral, Philip Roth
Over the Edge, Jonathan Kaplan, dir. (film)
Felix Halloran
The “Knock Knock Who’s There?” Award
“Crime & Culprits: Identity Theft, Systems & Psychos”
The Silence of the Lambs, Thomas Harris
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey
The White Tiger, Aravind Adiga
The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood
BeJay Mugo
The Maybe I Don’t Wanna Melt into the Pot Award
“Engineering an American: The Illusion of Assimilation”
Native Speaker, Chang-Rae Lee
How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, Julia Álvarez
The Poet X, Elizabeth Acevedo
Crying in H-Mart, Michelle Zauner
Devon Bell
The “Some Call it Chaos, We Call It Family” Award
“Family Matters: Analyzing Women's Roles in Family Dynamics”
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
The Virgin Suicides, Jeffrey Eugenides
Salvage the Bones, Jesmyn Ward
The Bean Trees, Barbara Kingsolver
Carly Silverstein
The “Though this be madness, there is method in it” Award
“Am I Crazy?: An Analysis of Psychopaths as Unreliable Narrators
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey
Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys
Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis
John Savage
The “Are We Even Really Here?” Award
“The Good, The Bad, and The Authentic Self: Analyzing How Society Instructs and Defines The Limits of Our Own Identity and Consciousness”
No Longer Human, Osamu Dazai
The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea, Yukio Mishima
The Talented Mr. Ripley, Patricia Highsmith
Bright Lights, Big City, Jay McInerney
Caden Schmidt
The “Is It Just Me or Am I Crazy?” Award
“Murder on the Brain: The Subsequential Chaos of the Human Identity”
The Talented Mr. Ripley, Patricia Highsmith
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larrson
The Devotion of Suspect X, Keigo Higashino
Memento, Christopher Nolan, dir. (film)
Lucille Hancock
The Happiness Is Only Real When It’s Shared Award
“Off the Grid: Exploring an Escape of Societal Standards Through the Natural World”
Where the Crawdads Sing, Delia Owens
Into the Wild, John Krakauer
The Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger
Prodigal Summer, Barbara Kingsolver
Kendall Dowd
The Money Can’t Buy You Love Award
“On the Rocks: The Impact of Wealth on Romantic Relationships”
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brönte
Crazy Rich Asians, Kevin Kwan
Bella Cui
The “Am I a Machine Without Feelings?” Award
“I Care Therefore I Am: A Quest for Identity and Empowerment of Caretakers”
Klara and the Sun, Kazuo Ishiguro
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brönte
Salvage the Bones, Jesmyn Ward
Maid, Molly Smith Metzler, creator (TV series)
Lillian Gunn
The We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For Award
“Trauma vs. Bliss In Queer Identities: The Journey to Self-Acceptance”
Maurice, E.M. Forster
The Thirty Names for Night, Zeyn Joukhadar
Nevada, Imogen Binnie
Moonlight, Barry Jenkins, dir. (film)
Natalie Kim
The “Sugar, Spice, and NOT Everything Nice” Award
“Good (White) Girl: Deconstructing White, Female Experiences to Highlight the Complexity of Intersectional Experiences”
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
Ellie Gunnin
The Keeping It in the Dysfunctional Family Award
“The Nonexistence of ‘Perfect’ Families”
The Virgin Suicides, Jeffrey Eugenides
We the Animals, Justin Torres
We Are Completely Beside Ourselves, Karen Joy Fowler
Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng
Sydney Rawie
The “It’s All Greek to Me” Award
“Empowering Modern Women Through Feminist Retellings of Greek Mythology”
A Thousand Ships, Natalie Haynes
Silence of The Girls, Pat Barker
Ariadne, Jennifer Saint
The Penelopiad, Margaret Atwood
Emily Rodriguez
The Sweet Lady, Don’t You Know We Love You? Award
“Matrilineal Trauma in Marginalized Communities”
Her Body and Other Parties, Carmen Maria Machado
Heart Like a Window, Mouth Like a Cliff, Sara Borjas
We the Animals, Justin Torres
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, Ocean Vuong
Lesley Ke
The Dangerous Hope Award
“Women vs. the World: Examining Dystopias from a Gendered Perspective”
Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
1984, George Orwell
Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
Henri Bariselle
The Gothic…But Make It Crunk Award
“Southern Gothic Literature: A Character's Tormenting, Overwhelming, and Terrifying Life”
Child of God, Cormac McCarthy
As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner
Wise Blood, Flannery O’Connor
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Tobe Hooper, dir. (film)
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Phone: (512) 327-1213