Willa Neubauer ’22 is the recipient of the ninth annual Donald E. Axinn Foundation/Anna Quindlen Award for Creative Writing. The $25,000 prize is funded through a generous donation from the Joan F. and Donald E. Axinn Foundation and awarded to a graduating senior who shows excellence in creative writing as judged by a committee of faculty members. It is presented in recognition of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anna Quindlen ’74 for her remarkable contributions to American life, outstanding oeuvre, and sustained support for women’s education and the development of young people.
“I couldn’t be more grateful to have received this honor and to have had the opportunity to work with the professors that I did at Barnard and Columbia. I always felt most myself, and most embraced, in my writing classrooms — the warmth and compassion that was shown to me in those spaces will inform so much of what I do in the future,” said Neubauer, who aspires to work in the literary world now that she has graduated.
As an English major with a concentration in creative writing, Neubauer spent much of her time at Barnard immersed in the world of words. Her literary influences include Joan Didion, William Faulkner, Toni Morrison, Eileen Myles, Frank O’Hara, and Virginia Woolf. “This award is a token of my professor’s guidance and brilliance and the inspiration I gained from being in classrooms with such beautiful writers,” said Neubauer, whose senior thesis, “Dave, See Me, June,” is a short narrative piece on growing up, growing old, and the nostalgia one faces reflecting on childhood.
The award committee included professors Jennifer Finney Boylan, Yvette Christiansë, Timea Széll ’75, Ken Chen, Margaret Vandenburg, and Alexandra Watson.