The Watermark has been publishing the literary and art work of students at the UMass Boston for 12 years. Before its current incarnation as The Watermark it was a journal called Howth Castle. The Watermark is entirely student run and funded primarily through student fees. We publish the highest quality student work in fiction, poetry, non-fiction and art every year. Our goal is to provide a venue for the work of the student body, so that it can be shared with the University community and the greater Boston literary and arts community as well.

The Peter Butler Brooks Memorial Scholarship was established in 1989 by Mrs. E. Muaran Beals in memory of her grandson Peter B. Butler. The scholarship entitles the recipient to attend summer school at Oxford University; it also pays for the recipient's transportation. The student must also show promising talent in Creative Writing and/or Renaissance literature.

Alfred R. Ferguson Award for Distinguished Work in American Literature honors Alfred R. Ferguson, who taught at UMass Boston from 1966 until his death in 1972. Professor Ferguson was a distinguished scholar who edited 14 volumes of Ralph Waldo Emerson's writing, and was involved in the editing of Emerson's journals at the time of his death. The award is presented to the junior or senior English major who has written the best paper on any subject in American literature.

Francis Russell Hart Prize honors a scholar of English and Scottish literature who set a standard for committed teaching and effective learning in his department, his university, and his profession at large. The recipient must be a senior English major who has demonstrated excellence in English studies and made significant contributions to the university community.

James William Fay Essay Prize is awarded to the best capstone essay in English and Anglophone literature. The prize is given in honor of an avid reader, a perfectionist whose love and study of architecture was motivated by his lifelong value for style and design balanced by the creative spirit.