The University of Michigan declared the recipients of the 2025 Avery and Jule Hopwood Awards, along with other literary competitions overseen by the Hopwood Program.

This year’s competitions garnered 1,096 entries from 350 scholars across all three campuses, marking the second-highest tally of submissions in Hopwood’s history. The total of 146 awards exceeded $277,000.

An awards ceremony took place last week at Rackham Auditorium. Besides the announcement of the literary awards, professor emeritus and long-time Kasdan Scholarship preliminary evaluator Frank Beaver was celebrated with the first-ever Avery Award for exceptional service to the Hopwood Program. Poet, novelist, and clinical psychologist Hala Alyan presented the Hopwood Lecture.

The Hopwood Awards were founded through a bequest from Avery Hopwood, a 1905 alumnus and accomplished Broadway playwright, alongside his mother Jule Hopwood. Notable past recipients include Arthur Miller, Robert Hayden, Jesmyn Ward, Celeste Ng, and Pemi Aguda.