Erinda Sheno
Memorial Prizes
​​To every writer who submitted work this year: thank you. Your words matter. Your perspective matters. And your willingness to engage, question, and create is exactly what this moment, and our democracy, requires.
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Special Thanks to Our Review Board
The Sheno Prize would not be possible without the time, care, and expertise of our 2026 Review Board, who thoughtfully reviewed and selected this year’s honorees.
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High School Winner
Shafia Malik
Shafia is a junior at the Academy at Palumbo. Her writing focuses on the city and how welcoming it is toward immigrants. Coming from an immigrant family myself, she deeply passionate about immigration justice and public policy. A fun fact about Shafia is is that she's fluent in Urdu, Punjabi, and Hindi.
College Review Board
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Olivia Loudon
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Charissa Howard
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Sonali Deliwala
High School Review Board
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Miran Andriyevsky
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Jamie-Lee Josselyn
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Mae Early
Celebrating Our 2026 Winners
The Sheno Prize celebrates the life and legacy of Erinda Sheno, a Philadelphia-born writer, advocate, and first-generation American who used her voice to champion justice, democracy, and the power of storytelling.
Each year, the prize uplifts young writers who carry that same spirit forward, using their words to challenge, inspire, and shape the future of civic engagement.
In 2026, we are proud to celebrate a powerful group of applicants whose work reflects courage, creativity, and a deep commitment to community and change.​​
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​Vote That Jawn, ThePhiladelphiaCitizen.org, UPenn Creative Writing, and the Kelly Writers House are pleased to continue the Erinda Sheno Memorial Prizes, to be awarded to high school and college student-writers in Philadelphia. Honoring the legacy and work of Vote That Jawn Youth Leader, writer, and Philadelphian Erinda Sheno, the Sheno Prizes will recognize up-and-coming writers in Philadelphia for extraordinary pieces on voting, democracy, immigration, or Philadelphia life.
Two prizes will be awarded, one to a young writer enrolled in a Philadelphia high school, and one to a college student in the Philadelphia area. The high school division winner will receive a $150 honorarium and publication on the Vote That Jawn website; the college division winner will receive a $250 honorarium and publication on The Philadelphia Citizen’s website. Runners-up will also be able to publish work on Vote That Jawn’s website.
Submission criteria
Erinda’s work was wide-ranging and innovative; successful submissions will embrace this spirit of free-thinking and creativity. For high school writers, submissions should be approximately 600 words. For the collegiate prize, submissions should not exceed 1000 words. We look forward to reading your work!
About Erinda Sheno
The Sheno Prizes honor the life and legacy of Erinda Sheno. The daughter of Albanian-American immigrants, Erinda grew up here in Philadelphia. She attended the Arts Academy at Benjamin Rush, where she majored in playwriting. Then, at the University of Pennsylvania, she studied English and Creative Writing where she also worked with Vote That Jawn, Kelly Writers’ House Fellow, and the Center for Contemporary Writing.
Like all Philadelphians, Erinda loved the Phillies and the Eagles, but her passion was writing. A talented writer and reporter, Erinda published in ThePhiladelphiaCitizen.org and on VoteThatJawn.com. Erinda worked the local territory: as a Youth Leader for Vote That Jawn, a Kelly Writers’ House Fellow, and a staffer at the Center for Contemporary Writing. Erinda was a brilliant writer committed to promoting justice and equality through her work on democracy and voting in Philadelphia. A first-generation American, Erinda was particularly committed to supporting immigrant communities in Philadelphia and beyond and telling the stories of her own family, who’d immigrated from Albania.