Flint Wins 2024 Alcott Society Article Prize

The Louisa May Alcott Society’s Beverly Lyon Clark Article Prize recognizes scholarly excellence in Alcott studies, and it honors the memory of Professor Beverly Lyon Clark, whose scholarship has had an enormous impact on Alcott Studies. A committee composed of three members of the Louisa May Alcott Society appointed by the Society President chooses the winning article each year. The winner will be presented with a certificate and a small cash award at the Annual American Literature Association Conference. Article prize winners are encouraged to attend the conference to receive the award, as they are able. 

The award committee this year was unanimous in making its selection. This year’s winner of the Beverly Lyon Clark article prize goes to Azelina Flint for “A Marble Woman: Is the Omen Good or Ill? Louisa May Alcott’s Exposé of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Repressed Individualism in Her Domestic Horror Fiction,” which appeared in Horror Studies 14.3 (2023): 9-27. 

In this brilliant essay, Flint makes an intriguing case for Alcott's story “The Marble Woman” as a response and correction to Hawthorne’s final novel, The Marble Faun. Flint  builds a complex and deeply comparative argument that examines various iterations of the Pygmalion myth. Further, while showing the ways in which the works of Alcott and Hawthorne converse with each other, Flint reveals Alcott’s unique modeling of the artist. The article is especially notable for its breadth of research and its compelling presentation of the deep connections between authors, characters, and texts.

Congratulations to Dr. Flint!