Annual prizes are awarded to the best poems written by a student in the English Department.

Bernice Schaffer Bessin was born in New York City on June 3, 1914. She married George Bessin in 1940 and raised two daughters, Barbara Bessin Zucker and Margaret Bessin Peppercorn. She worked as an elementary school guidance counselor in the poor sections of New York City's lower east side.

After retirement she began writing poetry. In her late 70's and 80's she taught poetry at a senior citizen center in New York, had poems published, and taught poetry to inmates at a women's correctional institute. Her own poems dealt largely with issues of family, aging, and the life cycle. They expressed her great warmth, sensitivity to issues of change and aging, her energy, and her enthusiastic love of people and of life.

Recent Recipients of the Bessin Award:

2012:

• Nadja Rumjanceva
• Roman Filikovsky

2011:

• Danielle Zilberberg
• Slava Bart
• Melissa Dank

2010: 

• (Data missing)

2009:

• Ron Ben Tovim
• Viacheslav Bart

2008:

• Avital Tsype (First Prize)
• Moran Kornberg (Second Prize)

2007:

• Ron Ben Tovim

2006:

• Avshalom Guissin

2005:

• Julie Cohen

2004:

• Elad Zamir