Do you like spending time with Jane Austen? Do you put off your friends to hang out with Hemingway? Then earn some cash by entering an essay analyzing works of literature in the annual Carolyn Keen literature competition.

The competition is open to all students who have written essays in a De Anza College English course during the past academic year. Applicants need to type and submit two copies of a three to 10 page essay that analyzes a literary text or texts along with a one-page cover letter stating academic and career goals.

Personal information, such as full name, home address, e-mail address and home phone should be included on the cover letter so the English department literature committee will know who to give the cash prizes to.

One primary winner will be selected by the committee and will receive a $300 cash prize. The winning essay will be published in Red Wheelbarrow, the De Anza College student literary magazine published at the end of spring quarter, and will be available at the De Anza Bookstore.

Submissions should be made to committee representative Julie Pesano via her Language Arts office faculty mailbox. The deadline for submissions is May 28.

The Carolyn Keen literature prize was created in honor of Carolyn Keen, one of the original English department instructors at De Anza who came to the college when it first opened in the late 1960s.

“Carolyn served as department chair for more than 20 years and was instrumental in creating and fostering the literature program here on campus,” said De Anza English instructor Robert Dickerson. “We wanted to do something to celebrate her contributions to the department and the college, to commend her for being such an extraordinary teacher, and to show our undying love and appreciation for her.”

Funding for the awards initially came from contributions from colleagues in the De Anza English department.

“After a few years, we had received so many donations that we were able to create a fund at the Foothill-De Anza Foundation,” said Dickerson. “Of course, it’s entirely possible, given budget problems, that we might have to return to soliciting contributions from English department faculty.”

So this May, unleash that bibliophile lurking within. Present an analysis of a literary text and commend a truly inspirational woman by sharing in her love of literature and learning.