Deadline: April 1, 2022
Entry fee: $23
About the contest
The North American Review is the oldest literary magazine in America (founded in 1815) and one of the most respected. We are interested in high-quality poetry, fiction, and nonfiction on any subject; however, we are especially interested in work that addresses contemporary North American concerns and issues, particularly with the environment, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and class.
The Terry Tempest Williams Prize is intended to recognize the finest essay writing. We welcome all work painted with creative nonfiction’s broad brush: the lyric essay, the hermit crab essay, the braided essay, the memoir, the personal essay, literary journalism, and everything in between. Food essays, travel writing, nature essays, sports writing, and literary criticism will also be considered but should have a personal component. Williams is known for her environmental writing, but please do not feel limited to this topic. The Williams Prize welcomes previously unpublished nonfiction on any subject so long as it is well executed. The winning entry will appear in the North American Review’s fall issue. All finalists will be considered for publication.
Submission guideline
- All contact information should be entered in your cover letter. No names, addresses, or other identifying information should appear on manuscripts, please.
- Please include title and word count for the piece on the first page of your manuscript.
- If possible, please submit your manuscript as a Word document or PDF.
- To maintain anonymity, your piece will be assigned a log number in place of identifying information by a student worker who is not reading for the prize.
- All submissions are read by the contest coordinator, Dr. Brooke Wonders, as well as by fifteen or more North American Review contest readers, most of whom are undergraduate or graduate students at UNI. They select a slate of semifinalists, then finalists, from this submission pool. All finalists are sent to the prize judge.
- Our prize judge selects a winner and runner-up from the slate of finalists. All finalists and semifinalists will be listed in the magazine and on Open Space.
- The contest coordinator may offer publication—in a future issue of North American Review and/or on Open Space—to notable essays.
- Regular nonfiction submissions will be closed while our Terry Tempest Williams Prize for Creative Nonfiction is open. The CNF prize will remain open until April 1st. We are open to regular CNF submissions from September 15 to December 1.
- Prize: $1,000
