Congratulations to the 2022 Siegel/McDaniel Winners

The Siegel/McDaniel Award for 2022 has been awarded to Jess Rafalko’s excellent submission, “‘How You Cling to Your Grievance!’: Mickey Sabbath’s Tortured Relationship to Realism in Sabbath’s Theater.” Jess is a PhD student in English at Penn State, where she focuses on Post-45 American literature and the limits of realist form. She holds an MFA in fiction from Ohio State, and her creative work has appeared most recently in One Story. — Jess Rafalko

Owing to a highly competitive field of entrants, the judges decided to also ward a second place prize to Michael Barry for his essay, “‘A Half-Mash, All the Ideological Voices’: Roth & Bakhtin, Two Theorists in Synchronicity.” Michael is a recent graduate of Bennington College's MFA in Writing and Literature, where he wrote his critical thesis on Philip Roth's The Counterlife. His stories push form to ex- amine contemporary attitudes toward work, love, and family. He lives in Austin, Texas with his spouse and two daughters, and volunteers with the Austin Batcave teaching poetry to third graders. — Michael Barry

Both of the awardees will work with the editors of Philip Roth Studies with a view to publish- ing their respective works in the journal. This award is given in honor of the work of Ben Siegel and John McDaniel, two of the earliest and most influential Roth scholars in the history of American letters.