First Annual Gosnell Prize Awarded at Final Exercises

Jill Rappoport, Mark Gosnell, Jahan Ramazani, Zak Fisher, Abby Adams, Mary Ann Gosnell
Photo by Dan Addison

The inaugural Brett Baxley Gosnell Prize for first-year writing was awarded to first-year College student Abby Adams and graduate student Zak Fisher during the English Department’s diploma ceremony on May 18. Novelist (and Albemarle County resident) John Grisham, who befriended Brett Gosnell when he was a student at U.Va., served as the judge of the prize. The award was created in honor of Brett Baxley Gosnell, who died of cancer in 2006 after his first year as an undergraduate at Virginia and, had he lived, would likely have graduated this spring. Even though his time was short at U.Va., Brett made a big impression with his love of life, his drive to excel, his ardent devotion to the University, and his passionate desire to become a renowned writer. He thrived in his first-year writing class, despite his struggle with the advanced stages of cancer. He developed a wonderful relationship with his first-year writing instructor, Jill Rappoport, who was then a doctoral student in the English Department and has since gone on to become an assistant professor of English at Villanova University. Brett’s parent’s Mary Ann and Mark Gosnell, and close family friends, including Dr. Karen Rheuban of U.Va., wanted to endow an award that would honor Brett’s memory and recognize the importance of the writing instruction he received. The English Department proposed a dual prize that would award $1,000 to the author of the best essay in a first-year writing class and $1,000 to that student’s graduate instructor. The Department wanted to do something that would both honor Brett and to benefit, albeit in a small way, our priority area of funding for our graduate students.

John Grisham had been kind enough to read and respond to some of Brett’s writing before he died. Department Chair Jahan Ramazani asked Mr. Grisham to be the honorary judge of the prize this first time, reading the finalists after Director of the Writing Program Greg Colomb and Assistant Director Jon D’Errico worked hard with the Writing Program staff to organize and sort through the nominated essays. Mr. Grisham generously agreed to serve as judge, and he picked Abby Adams’s essay, “Where Reagan Meets Harry and Sally,” from among the finalists. At the English Department’s diploma ceremony, Mr. Grisham spoke about his friendship with Brett and the excellence of Abby’s essay before presenting her with the cash prize and certificate. Jill Rappoport then recalled her experience as Brett’s graduate instructor and presented the cash prize and certificate to Abby’s first-year writing instructor, Zak Fisher.   

The Department is grateful to the Gosnell family and friends for contributing to the establishment of this prize, which will honor Brett’s memory by celebrating his commitment to excellence in writing. The prize will now be awarded on an annual basis in the spring of every academic year.