We’re thrilled to announce the winners of this year’s Creative Non-fiction Contest, as chosen by judge Alexander Chee!
Grand Prize
“Ghost Bread” by Angelique Stevens
Angelique Stevens is Haudenosaunee and Italian. Her nonfiction can be found in LitHub, The New England Review, and The Chattahoochee Review. She was chosen for the Grand Prize in the Solas Award for Best Travel Writing, The Bread Loaf Carol Houck Smith Returning Contributor Award, Kenyon Review’s Peter Taylor Fellowship for Nonfiction, and Bennington College’s Fellowship in Nonfiction where she also earned a scholarship for her MFA. She finds inspiration in wandering—being in places that push the boundaries of comfort, experience, knowledge, and hunger. She is writing a memoir about her experiences growing up in New York State.
First Runner-up
“Meditations on My Face” by Jaminnia States
Jaminnia R. States is pursuing her MFA in Creative Writing at Converse College and serving as managing editor for A Gathering Together. Her work appears there as well as in Root Work Journal. As a graduate of both Howard University and Indiana University, she has moonlighted as a passionate elementary school teacher-librarian, university and public librarian, researcher, and joyful camp counselor. She’s always been a writer. Currently, she resides in beautiful Georgia, where she creates learning experiences for students of all ages.
Second Runner-up
“Me, the Joshua Tree” by Joshua Whitehead
Joshua Whitehead is a Two-Spirit, Oji-nêhiyaw member of Peguis First Nation (Treaty 1). He is the author of full-metal indigiqueer (Talonbooks 2017), Jonny Appleseed (Arsenal Pulp 2018) and the editor of the anthology, Love after the End (Arsenal Pulp 2020). His essay, “Me, the Joshua Tree” is an excerpt from his forthcoming manuscript, Making Love with the Land slated to release Fall 2021 with Knopf Canada.
Please join us in congratulating these winners! Our next contest, the Pacific Spirit Poetry Prize, closes on October 15.