Freund Reading Featuring Benjamin Garcia and Sophia Veltfort

The Department of Literatures in English celebrates the winners of the 2026 Philip Freund Prize for Creative Writing in recognition of excellence in publication.

The alumni prize is supported by the Philip Freund '29 endowment and comes with a $5000 award and an invitation to participate in the Freund Prize Reading in the fall semester.

The 2026 Freund Prize Reading will take place on Thursday, November 12 at 5:00 p.m. in Rhodes-Rawlings Auditorium, Klarman Hall KG70. Recipients will read from their award-winning work. Books by the authors will be available for purchase thanks to Ithaca's local cooperative Non-profit bookstore Buffalo Street Books, and a book signing will follow the reading.

More about the 2026 Freund Prize recipients:

Benjamin Garcia, Poetry, MFA '11
Benjamin Garcia is a 2023 National Endowment for the Arts Fellow in poetry. His first collection, THROWN IN THE THROAT, was selected for the National Poetry Series, the Eugene Paul Nassar Poetry Prize, and was a finalist for the Kate Tufts Discovery Award. He worked for ten years as a sexual health and harm reduction educator in New York’s Finger Lakes region, where he received the Jill Gonzalez Health Educator Award recognizing contributions to HIV treatment and prevention. A CantoMundo and Lambda Literary fellow, he serves as core faculty at Alma College’s low-residency MFA program. His poems and essays have appeared or are forthcoming in: AGNI, American Poetry Review, Indiana Review, Kenyon Review, and New England Review.
He is currently at work on a multimedia project exploring autism and ADHD. His video poem “Ode to the Peacock” is available for viewing at the Broad Museum’s website as part of El Poder de la Poesia: Latinx Voices in Response to HIV/ AIDS.
Website: http://benjamingarciapoet.com/

Sophia Veltfort, Writer, MFA '20, PHD '24
Sophia Veltfort is a fiction writer, essayist, and scholar. Her fiction has appeared in Prairie Schooner, Writer’s Digest online (first place, Annual Writing Competition), the Santa Monica Review, Narrative online (30 Below Contest finalist), the Chicago Tribune online (Nelson Algren finalist), Alaska Quarterly Review, and elsewhere. Her nonfiction has appeared in Harvard Review and been selected as a Notable Essay in the Best American Essays. She holds degrees from Yale (BA in English, Writing Concentration, 2012), Oxford (MSt in English, 1900-Present; Marshall Scholar 2012-2013), the University of East Anglia (MA Creative Writing Prose Fiction; Marshall Scholar 2013-2014), and Cornell (Joint MFA in Fiction, 2020 / PhD in English Language and Literature, 2024). Before returning to teach at Yale, she was an Assistant Professor of Practice in the Arts at the University of Chicago in 2022-2024. Her debut novel, This Vital Absence, comes out from Deep Vellum in November 2026.
Website: https://english.yale.edu/people/full-part-time-lecturers-research-scholars/sophia-veltfort

Reception and book signing to follow in the English Lounge, 258 Goldwin Smith Hall

We are proud to partner with Buffalo Street Books at this event. Buffalo Street Books is Ithaca’s only non-profit independent bookstore, dedicated to serving its community through books and literary programming.  The Freund Winner’s books are available online, in-store, and on-site at the reading. Show your student ID at BSB and get 10% off every day!

FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Masking is encouraged.

We strive to host inclusive, accessible events that enable all individuals, including individuals with disabilities, to engage fully. To be respectful of those with allergies and environmental sensitivities, we ask that you please refrain from wearing strong fragrances. The venue is wheelchair accessible and equipped with assistive listening technology. If you need additional accommodations to participate in this event, please contact us as soon as possible.

For more information about this event visit english.cornell.edu/zalaznick or email [email protected].

This event is presented by the Department of Literatures in English / Creative Writing Program at Cornell University.