English Honors & Awards

The English Department provides its majors with a variety of opportunities to gain academic honors and to become involved in the student-run publications of the college. The department sponsors two English-related prizes--the Dr. and Mrs.Burton Miller Prize in English and the Morpheus Literary Competition--and sponsors a chapter of Sigma Tau Delta, an International English Honor Society.

Dr. & Mrs. Burton Miller Prize in English

This prize is awarded to the senior English major who receives the highest grades in English during her/his junior and senior years.

Morpheus Literary Competition

Each spring semester, the Morpheus student literary magazine conducts a literary competition with cash prizes. Entries are judged by a panel of English faculty.

Sigma Tau Delta

Sigma Tau Delta is the International English Honor Society, founded in 1924 at Dakota Wesleyan University. The purposes of the society are:
to confer distinction for high achievement in English language and literature in undergraduate, graduate and professional studies;
to promote interest in literature and the English language on local campuses and their surrounding studies;
to foster the discipline of English in all its aspects, including creative and critical writing.
Since 1924, some 125,000 members have been initiated into over 450 chapters located in Canada, Europe, the Caribbean, and the United States. Some of the more famous members include Eudora Welty, James Dickey, Laurence Perrine, Howard Nemorov, Robert Bly, Frank Herbert, Walter J. Ong, and Stephen Spender. An international convention is held annually.

At Heidelberg, members are inducted in the spring semester. The initiation ritual includes the reading of a favorite piece of literature and a celebratory reception following.