2026 Award Announcements

The Louisa May Alcott Society is delighted to announce the recipients of its 2026 awards for scholarly excellence in Alcott studies. The following awards were announced at our business meeting at the American Literature Association Conference in Chicago last week.

Beverly Lyon Clark Article Prize

The Beverly Lyon Clark Article Prize Committee is pleased to announce that the 2026 prize goes to Ariel Little for “‘Health Should Come First’: Alcott’s Model of Hygienic Female Development in Eight Cousins.” Little’s essay applies the nineteenth-century cultural concept of “hygiene” to offer an insightful reading of Rose’s character development, connecting her embrace of hygienic principles to her growing agency as a woman. Drawing on recent scholarship alongside original texts by nineteenth-century women doctors and health care professionals, Little persuasively demonstrates that for Alcott, good health was not simply an end in itself but a means by which women could achieve greater independence and wider futures. The committee praised the essay as lively, delightful, and insightful—offering new and significant context for Alcott’s choices in the novel.

The committee also awards an Honorable Mention to Tracey A. Cummings for “Louisa May Alcott’s Re-‘Work’ing of Thoreau’s Walden.” Cummings’s close reading of both texts demonstrates deep understanding of the related but distinct philosophies underlying each work, arguing convincingly that Work’s philosophy is Walden expanded, altered, and carried to a larger audience. 

The Society thanks committee members Anne Phillips, Christine Doyle, and Melissa Pennell for their invaluable service in reviewing all of the year’s submissions.

Sarah Elbert Travel Grants

The Alcott Society is also pleased to announce two Sarah Elbert Travel Grants awarded this year. Travel grants are designed to support graduate students, independent scholars, and retired and contingent faculty, and are funded by donations from members.

Emma Horst, a PhD candidate at Loyola University Chicago, received a grant to present “Virginie Victor, and the Fair/Dark Paradigm: The Politics of Sensationalized Spanish Characters in V.V.; or, Plots and Counterplots” at the American Literature Association annual conference.

Aida Bengoa, an MA student at Artois University in Northern France, received a grant to present “Rose in Bloom: Creative Genius and the Emersonian Philosophy of Vocation” at the Conversation Series at Orchard House.

Congratulations to all our 2026 award recipients!