Prizes!

Jo Shapcott wins the Costa Book of the Year Prize for her poetry collection Of Mutability (echoing Shelley, presumably...): http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jan/25/costa-book-award-jo-shapcott

Derek Walcott wins the T.S. Eliot poetry prize for White Egrets: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jan/24/ts-eliot-prize-derek-walcott 

Whilst in this vein, a reminder of the prizes for undergraduates at all levels: 

Undergraduate Prizes in English and American Studies 

English Literature
Level 1
Stella Brook Prize  
Two £50 book tokens awarded for work in medieval studies. Usually awarded to the two best-performed students in the Level 1 medieval studies course (currently, Mapping the Medieval).

John Jump Prize  
Two awards of £75 each, for work in any field of literature.

George Gissing Memorial Prize  
Two awards of £50 each, given to students in English Literature or to a joint honours student taking English.

Henry Charles Duffin Prize  
An award of £10.

The five awards in total offered by the John Jump, George Gissing Memorial and Henry Charles Duffin prize funds are usually given to the five highest-ranked students in the Level 1 courses, excluding that in medieval studies.

Level 2
Shakespeare Scholarship  
Two awards of £150 each for the two best-performed English Literature students at Level 2.  

John and Edith Lang Scholarship  
Originally awarded to encourage the study of History and English Literature, two awards of £100 each are given to the highest-ranked students in courses in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century literature (currently Reading the 19th Century and Writing the 18th Century).

Thomas Maguire Prize Two £100 book tokens for the highest-ranked students in Level 2 courses in medieval studies.

Shakespeare Prize  
Two awards of £50 each to the highest-placed English Literature students in a course on Shakespeare.

Early English Text Society Prize  
A volume published by the Early English Text Society, awarded to the third-highest ranked student in a medieval studies course (after the winners of the Thomas Maguire prize).

Level 3
De Quincey Essay Prize  
Two awards of £100 each, given to the writers of the two best Long Essays in English.

Samuel James Woodall Prize  
Two awards of £200 for the highest ranked English Literature students at Level 3.

G.L. Brook Prize £100 to the best student in medieval literature courses.

Arwid Johansson Exhibition One £100 book token to the next-best student in medieval literature courses.

Mary Katherine Slater Prize
One award of £50 to a student who has achieved a 2.1 or better despite difficult circumstances.

American Studies
(All for Level 3 students)

A. and M. Kaiser Prize  
£500 for the best dissertation in American History.

Jesse Davis Kandel Prize  
One award of £50 to a student with either an outstanding dissertation in American studies, or an outstanding degree result in American Studies.

Denis Welland Prize  
A £50 book token, for exceptional achievement in American courses.

Fay Mitchell Memorial Prize  
One £50 book token to the best student in American Studies, donated, in memory of their daughter Fay Mitchell, by her parents. Fay was a student in EAS. Recipients of this prize are encouraged to pass on their thanks to the family, whose address can be had from the Assessment Co-Ordinator in EAS.