THE BIENNIAL
SYLVIA BOWERBANK AWARD
This award is given to the best paper presented at the biennial meeting of the Margaret Cavendish Society, with preference given to junior scholars.
Criteria for the award are as follows:
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Originality and significance: is what is being claimed both new and important?
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Structure and scholarship: does the paper make its points in a clear and convincing way? Is it logically consistent? Is the research accurate and thorough?
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Felicity of prose: is the paper clearly and carefully written in a way that advances the progress of the argument? Is the paper free of unnecessary jargon?
Papers that have already been published, or are currently in the press, the published (or about-to-be-published) version of your paper is still eligible for submission for the award. You may submit a revised version of no more than 4000 words for consideration.
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To be considered for the award, send your article and contact information to margaretcavendishsociety@gmail.com
Deadline 30. September 2023
Award will be announced at the next Biennial Conference.
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Past Prize Winners
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2007 Bowerbank Award:
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First Prize: Katherine Larson, "'For the sake of after-ages': Margaret Cavendish's Strategies of Self-Representation."
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Second Prize: Margaret Owens, "'A Hodge-Podge of Diseases Tasteth Well': Arcimboldesque Portraits in Margaret Cavendish's Poems and Fancies (1653)."
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Third Prize: Valeria Holtz, "'More than He Can Rationally Prove?': Science and Magic in Cavendish's Response to the Platonists."
2009 Bowerbank Award:
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First Prize: Jacob Tootalian, " Every Beast is a Philosopher: Fancy and the Rational in The Blazing World"
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Second Prize: Lise Mae Schlosser, “Mrs. Dalloway and the Duchess: Virginia Woolf Reads and Writes Margaret Cavendish”
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Third Prize: Amy Greenstadt, “Margaret's Beard.”
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2022 Sylvia Bowerbank Award 2022
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Arnaud Zimmern, "Butterflies and Panaceas: Margaret Cavendish and Universal Remedies"