NEWS
NORMAN, OKLA. – Five students from Oklahoma were honored alongside winners from the United Kingdom, Malaysia and other U.S. states at the 2025 Newman Prize for Chinese Literature ceremony, held March 28 at the University of Oklahoma. The students were recognized for their winning entries in the English Jueju, an international poetry competition held in conjunction with the prize.
Among the Oklahoma winners, OU student Lucy Coleman earned the top prize in the Oklahoma adult category, while Ann Gao and Penelope Cline received the award for Best English Jueju Video. Vincent Huang, a student at Tulsa’s Oklahoma Chinese Language Institute, won the Oklahoma high school category, and Sherry Wang of the Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics was also recognized.
The event celebrated Taiwanese poet Ling Yu, who was named the winner of the 2025 Newman Prize for Chinese Literature by an international jury. Sponsored by the OU Institute for US-China Issues in the David L. Boren College of International Studies, the Newman Prize is awarded biennially to recognize outstanding achievement in prose or poetry that best captures the human condition, based solely on literary merit. Any living author writing in Chinese is eligible.
Since 2013, the Newman Prize for English Jueju has been awarded to recognize the best classical Chinese poem written in English while adhering to the traditional rules of classical poetry. Open to K-12 students, college students and adults worldwide, the competition aims to introduce participants to jueju, a revered Chinese poetic form with a history spanning over 1,500 years. Jueju consists of four lines, each containing either five or seven characters or monosyllabic words.
Jueju is widely regarded as one of the most beloved and representative forms of classical Chinese poetry, says Jonathan Stalling, Ph.D., interim dean for the David L. Boren College of International Studies, who oversees the competition. To support learning and engagement, a new platform offers real-time AI-powered feedback based on Stalling’s teaching methods. The platform accepts entries year-round for consideration in the next award cycle.
The awards ceremony and banquet took place at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art and were also live-streamed for international viewers.
Learn more about the Newman Prize. To learn more about the David L. Boren College of International Studies at OU, visit their website.
About the University of Oklahoma
Founded in 1890, the University of Oklahoma is a public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. As the state’s flagship university, OU serves the educational, cultural, economic and health care needs of the state, region and nation. For more information about the university, visit www.ou.edu.
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