A. Owen Aldridge Prize (Comparative Literature Studies)

About this program

Comparative Literature Studies (Penn State University Press), in cooperation with the American Comparative Literature Association and Penn State’s Department of Comparative Literature, offers the annual A. Owen Aldridge Prize to publish and financially reward the best graduate‑student scholarly article in comparative studies. Applicants must be current ACLA members as of November 15 and have completed all PhD requirements except the dissertation; one submission per student is allowed and papers must be 7,000–12,000 words in English, framed as literary research, theory, or criticism (not interviews, translations, or editions) and prepared for anonymous review. Submissions (Word or PDF) plus a confirming letter/email on institutional letterhead must be uploaded via the submission portal by November 15, 2026; entries are anonymously judged by an ACLA panel and the winning paper will be copy‑edited and published in CLS with a monetary prize as applicable.