The Fifth-Annual Wonderland Award
- WHAT: Explore, interpret, and transform Lewis Carroll and win prizes
- WHO: All undergraduate and graduate students at USC are eligible
- WHEN: The deadline for entries is April 1, 2009; winners will be announced at a reception in Doheny Library at 5:00 p.m. on April 21, 2009
- AWARD: First prize, $2,000; Second prize, $1,500
About the Contest
The Wonderland Award is an annual multidisciplinary competition that encourages new scholarship and creative work related to Lewis Carroll (1832-1898), the English logician, mathematician, photographer, and nonsense poet who is especially remembered for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and its sequel, Through the Looking Glass (1871). From opera to rock, board games to costumes, theatrical productions to feature-length movies, Carroll's work is everywhere.
The goal of the award is to promote the use of the G. Edward Cassady, M.D., and Margaret Elizabeth Cassady, R.N., Lewis Carroll Collection, held in Doheny Library. The Wonderland Award is sponsored by the USC Libraries through a generous gift from Linda Cassady.
Previous Winners
Previous winners include biomedical engineering major Arvind Iyer, English doctoral candidates Natasha Alvandi and Jonathan Hamrick, undergraduate theatrical design major Lauren Tyler, creative writing majors Charles Mallison and Scott Reding, and comparative literature doctoral candidates Paolo Matteucci and Sabrina Ovan. You can see many of their entries in our virtual Wonderland exhibition.
Entries
The format for Wonderland Award entries is limited only by the imagination. We accept a broad range of submissions, including scholarly essays, poems, performance pieces, videogames, animation, visual artworks, music, digital compositions, and films.
- All USC undergraduate and graduate students are eligible. Entries must have been completed while students were enrolled at USC. They must include an artist's statement to explain how they relate to Lewis Carroll.
- The entries are judged by their combination of scholarly research, creativity, and use of the Lewis Carroll Collection on the second floor of Doheny Library.
- In addition, entries are judged on their appearance and aesthetic quality. Written entries will be assessed by editorial criteria, such as their writing style and use of grammar and punctuation.
- Finally, entries are judged on how well they reflect the spirit and sensibilities of Lewis Carroll, including his thought, interests, sense of humor, and whimsy. The judges look for entries with distinctive qualities that set them apart from the other contest submissions.
By submitting an entry, you agree that all award submissions will become part of the G. Edward Cassady, M.D. and Margaret Elizabeth Cassady, R.N. Lewis Carroll Collection of the USC Libraries and that you grant to the USC Libraries a non-exclusive license to publish the entries in the future.
Where to Start
To get ideas and learn more about the life and work of Lewis Carroll, explore the Cassady Collection. You can browse the contents of the collection online. Visit USC Libraries Special Collections in Doheny Library, Room 206, to view rare Carroll-related books, illustrations, and artwork. An exhibition of previous entries is currently on display through May 15th on the ground floor of Doheny Library. These entries may also be seen online here.
How to Enter
For questions regarding the competition, contact Tyson Gaskill at (213) 740-2070 or gaskill@usc.edu. Submit entries to the 3rd-floor reception desk at Doheny Library.
Facebook Group
Join the USC Libraries Wonderland Award Facebook group to receive periodic contest updates and information about resources you can use to complete your entry.
The Polysyllogisms
Lewis Carroll was a devotee of logic games that explored the boundaries of sense and nonsense. This year's series of Daily Trojan ads features four of his well-known soriteses, which are polysyllogisms, or sequences of syllogisms that provide premises for unexpected conclusions. Depending on the premises, more than one conclusion is often possible. Follow the links below for answers to: