As part of an annual collaboration sponsored by World Literature Today and the University of Oklahoma’s School of Visual Arts, three OU students have been selected as winners of the 2026 Neustadt Lit Fest poster contest. Elena Carius, Kalinda Vo, and Nelly Rojo-Martinez won first, second, and third place, respectively, for their designs.
Carius’s winning design will be used in all the promotional materials for the 2026 Neustadt Festival, slated for Sept. 28–30 on the OU campus. Palestinian writer and 2026 Neustadt Prize laureate Ibrahim Nasrallah will headline the lit fest.
Nine visiting writers will also convene as the jury to select the winner of the 2027 NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s and Young Adult Literature and give readings from their works. The festival’s preliminary schedule of events is available online.
Since 2011, School of Visual Arts undergraduate coordinator Karen Hayes-Thumann has incorporated the poster competition as part of her Visual Communication II course. During the spring semester, WLT’s editor in chief, Daniel Simon, met with the students in person to help them refine their concepts, and the magazine’s art director, Parker Buske, also provided feedback at key stages of the process. The WLT staff then chose the winners from among the final designs.
In her feedback to Carius at the penultimate stage of the process, Buske wrote: “This is a very visually interesting illustration, well done! I love the use of the top of the pen shape to place the illustration within. With the design being so detailed, paired with an appropriate amount of white space, there will be an elegant area for the festival information to be laid out.”
Elena Carius is a twenty-two-year-old student-athlete from Wernigerode, Germany. A rising junior, her primary field of study is visual communication, and she pursuing a minor in design marketing. Alongside her passion for design and art, rowing is another passion that initially brought her to OU.
Kalinda Vo, born in Oklahoma City, is a sophomore pursuing a degree in visual communications with a minor in digital marketing. She has always been passionate about arts and crafts and enjoys creating meaningful artwork for others. Kalinda hopes to continue growing creatively and improving her skills as a designer.
Nelly Rojo-Martinez is from Norman, Oklahoma. She’s a sophomore at OU majoring in visual communications and minoring in digital marketing. Outside of her studies, she enjoys playing the clarinet, editing/uploading videos to YouTube and other social media platforms, and trying out new foods.
