The Sidney Prize is a Reward for Excellence
A sidney prize is a reward for excellence. It is usually awarded by a university or other institution of higher learning. It may be given to a student for academic merit or to a writer for their work. A sidney prize may also be given to a company or organization that is successful in business. Some prizes are only given once, while others are awarded annually. The winner of a sidney prize is honored at the award ceremony.
In addition to the prize, winners will receive a cash award and their entry will be published in overland. The short story must be themed around travel. The story should be of high literary quality and offer imaginative, creative and literary interpretations of the theme. The contest is open to all writers, nationally and internationally, at any stage in their writing careers.
The prize is named after the late playwright Sidney Howard, a member of the Playwrights’ Company who died in 1939. The prize was created to encourage new plays, especially those that had floundered on Broadway but had potential for success. Among the prize’s early recipients were Robert Ardrey and Tennessee Williams.
A sidney award is a prestigious prize that honors the work of an artist. The award is named in memory of the playwright who wrote such plays as “Thunder Rock,” which flopped on Broadway but went on to become an international classic. The first sidney was awarded in 1854 from a bequest by WC Wentworth, who donated the money to the Playwrights’ Company.
For her work on the domestic life of the early Dutch Republic, art history major Sophia Jactel (B.A. ’20) has won the 2024 Neilma Sidney prize. Her paper, entitled “Domesticity and Diversions: Josef Israels’ The Smoker as a Symbol of Peasant Culture and the Role of the Home,” was based on research in Syracuse University’s art galleries. Her essay, which focuses on an artwork by Josef Israels, also contributed to a fall exhibition, Domesticities: The Art of Daily Life in Nineteenth-Century Holland.
In 2024, the Hillman Foundation awarded a monthly Sidney prize for journalism that serves the common good. The September winner was Jennifer Gonnerman for a New York Magazine article about the mortgage crisis and the hardships faced by homeowners across America. The piece told the story of Jacqueline Tamaklo, one of many million victims of predatory lenders. Her pastor led her to believe she would be able to refinance her loan and lower her payments, but the amount jumped from $2,500 to $3,600.
Developing partnerships remains a core value and priority for Jewish Funders Network, and the Sidney Shapiro Prize embodies this spirit. The prize is a way to recognize the efforts of forward-thinking Jewish funders who collaborate with one another to create measurable change in their communities and fields of interest. A panel of experts judge the prize, and the winner is honored at the annual meeting of JFN’s Triennial Council.