Each year, American University first-year students come together around a single common reading. This year, it was Ashley Shew’s Against Technoableism: Rethinking Who Needs Improvement, a timely book that sits at the intersection of technology studies, biotech ethics, and disability studies.

All students enrolled in first-year writing were also invited to join an essay contest inspired by the book. This year, the winners were Chloe Raymond, Gabrielle Fish, Lucas Powers, and Berit Rosenstiel.  

The contest was sponsored by AU’s Writing Studies Program and the Campus Store and judged by a committee of Writing Studies faculty, including Daisy Levy, Adam Tamashasky, Kim Ross, and Jermaine Jones. The committee receives a wealth of submissions each year, spanning genres, topics, and voices—and selecting the winning essays is challenging.  

 “This year, our winners represent the breadth and depth of what young writers are capable of—they are all uniquely sophisticated and bring their own experiences and insights to powerful conversations,” says Levy. “Two of the essays spoke with urgency about the need for a more courageous and authentic approach to teenaged mental health, and one that used wry humor mixed with compassion to send up the quagmire of TikTok with respect to breakups and intimate relationships. Another writer mixed reflection and personal growth with analysis of queer representation in popular culture. Finally, the grand prize winner combined their own meditations on ‘wilderness’ to blend cultural commentary on the natural world and a critique of an Anthro-centric worldview.”

The combination of all these essays, says Levy, “makes it clear that these writers are deeply curious about and committed to making sense of themselves and the world in which they live—and to do so with acts of writing that are expansive and attentive.”

Here are some excerpts from the winning essays: