The Neilma Sidney Prize and SFCU Cash Giveaway

The Sydney Prize was established to honor the memory of Dartmouth College professor Sidney Cox and his passion for encouraging undergraduate students to pursue their creative ambitions. It is open to all graduate students exhibiting promise during their first two years of study and has been used to support an array of creative pursuits. The winner receives a substantial cash award, as well as mentoring from a distinguished academic in their field.

The Neilma Sidney Prize, administered by Overland and the Malcolm Robertson Foundation, provides one winner with $5000 in prize money and two runners-up with $750 each. The winning story is published online and in our autumn 2024 edition, while the runners-up stories will be posted on Overland’s website and in other outlets.

A former Sidney student, Clare Jackson, has authored an acclaimed book that has won one of the world’s leading prizes for historical writing. Jackson earned her PhD at Sidney studying the idea of royalist ideas in late-seventeenth century Scotland. She is now Senior Tutor and Walter Grant Scott Fellow at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and has written widely on the history of philosophy and intellectual life.

This year the Society for the History of Technology awarded Bill Rankin its 2017 Sidney Edelstein Prize, which is “for the best book in the field of the history of technology published during the preceding three years.” The prize was inaugurated in 1968 by the generosity of Ruth Edelstein Barish in memory of her husband, the distinguished historian of science and technology. Previously it was known as the Dexter Prize.

SFCU’s Cash Giveaway is open to legal permanent residents of the fifty (50) United States and District of Columbia who have reached the age of majority in their state or territory of residence at time/date of entry. Employees, officers and directors of SFCU, and the immediate family/household members of each such employee or officer are not eligible to participate. The odds of winning depend on the number of entries received.

To be eligible to win, you must submit an essay through the SFCU Cash Giveaway entry form at sfcu.com/cashgiveaway by 5/1/2024. Essays must contain original, previously unpublished work and be a minimum of 500 words long. Entries must include a title, author name, contact information and a brief biography about the author.

The 73rd annual Hillman Prizes have been announced, honoring journalists “who pursue investigative reporting and deep storytelling to illuminate critical issues in our country.” Read the full list of winners here. Previous winners have included Jane Mayer for her piece on Dick Cheney and the Bush Administration’s violations of domestic and international law; Bill Moyers and Kathleen Hughes for their investigation of hospice privatization; and Emily Michelson and Ashley Clarke for their work on a couple’s struggle to pay their taxes. The New York Times and ProPublica are among the other notable winners this year. The New York Times also won the Sidney Prize for Editorial Writing.