Vázquez-Valarezo Poetry Award

The Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program is pleased to administer the annual Vázquez-Valarezo Poetry Award, sponsored by Dr. Jeanneth Vázquez, Professor of Spanish.

In addition to recognizing excellence, the award is designed to encourage student poets to submit their work for consideration. Entries are judged on the basis of originality, creative imagination, characterization and artistic quality.

The award is named in honor of two educators, the late Honorato Vázquez and the late Angelica Valarezo, writers who worked in the field of education in Ecuador for 35 years.

"My parents were a source of great inspiration to me," Dr. Jeanneth Vázquez said. "They were reading poetry to me even before I was able to read and write. I could not think of a better way of honoring their memory than naming the award after them."

The theme for the 26th annual Vázquez-Valarezo Poetry Award is "Voices of Freedom," an opportunity for students to reflect on freedom for people of all genders, ethnicities, and nationalities.

For consideration, unpublished poems should be emailed to wgss@augustana.edu as a PDF or Word document (.docx). Submissions are limited to three poems per student.

The prize for first place is $75, second place $50, and third place $30.

Entries must be received by Friday, April 10, 2026.