Calista Cumings Award

Department: English
Undergraduate/Graduate: Undergraduate
Amount: $100
Student Level: Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, Senior, Graduate
Distribution: Annual Award

An Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ schoolteacher who taught math with poetry, Calista Cumings created and edited Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ’s earliest successful literary magazine, The Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Offering. Working with limited assistance, inadequate funding, and an inexperienced local publishing industry, she provided a forum for Midwestern authors to exchange original literature in 1849 and 1850. Her magazine only survived for twelve monthly numbers, but Cuming’s editorial work, characterized by a “clear head” and a “kind heart,” was fondly remembered for many decades.