Winners of the 2026 Terry Tempest Williams Creative Nonfiction Prize
We are pleased to announce that Jessica Hendry Nelson has selected a winner, a runner-up, and two honorable mentions from a slate of finalists. See the full list below. All entrants will receive a copy of the Fall 2026 issue of North American Review in which the winner will appear. A big thank you to everyone who submitted an essay for the prize. We had 388 entries, and it was a pleasure to read such an abundance of fine nonfiction.
WINNER
Michael Palmer, “I Don’t Usually Talk Like This”
RUNNER-UP
Shohreh Laici, “The Language of the Enemy”
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Mikaela Dunitz, “Going, Going, Gone: Two Thousand Children’s Books For Grief”
Felicia Zamora, “F_el_ Note: Fascinations: A Nesting Zuihitsu”
FINALISTS
Seychelle De Luca, “Electrical Disturbances in an Unremarkable Brain”
Ethan Kan, “If the Shoe Doesn't Fit”
Amelia McNally, “Are You Listening?”
Adele Saint-Pierre, “In Your Body”
Jodie Vinson, “One Beauty”
Ro White, “Contrary”
SEMI-FINALISTS
Elissa Altman, “Azazel”
Laura Baley, “Bingo”
Deborah Butler, “An Equestrian Odyssey”
Jamie Cattanach, “Design”
Melissa Chadburn, “The American Way”
Yvonne Fein, “Across Text and Time: Traipsings of an Antipodean Jew”
Rebecca Flowers, “Anthill”
Shauna Jones, “Mixed Methods”
Jeffrey-Michael Kane, “The Vitrified Plain”
Margalit Katz, “Anatomy of a Bird”
Onnesha Roychoudhuri, “B-Sides”
Anne Schuchman, “36 Hours in Lecce”
Cherene Sherrard, “Romance in a Small Place”
JoAnn Stevelos, “No Photograph of Me Running”
Pam Watts, “Sluts”
Fleur Van Woerkom, “Distance”
Jessica Hendry Nelson is the author of the memoir Joy Rides Through the Tunnel of Grief (UGA, 2023), winner of the AWP Sue William Silverman Prize for Creative Nonfiction, and longlisted for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay. Her memoir If Only You People Could Follow Directions (2014), was selected as a best debut book by the Indies Introduce New Voices program, the Indies Next List by the American Booksellers' Association, named a Best Book of the Year by Kirkus Review, received starred reviews in Kirkus and Publisher's Weekly, and reviewed nationally in print and on NPR—including twice in (O) Oprah Magazine. It was also a finalist for the Vermont Book Award. She is also co-author of the textbook and anthology Advanced Creative Nonfiction: A Writers’ Guide and Anthology (Bloomsbury, 2021) along with the writer Sean Prentiss. Her work has appeared in The Sun, The Threepenny Review, Prairie Schooner, North American Review, Tin House, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Rumpus, The Carolina Quarterly, Columbia Journal, Painted Bride Quarterly, Crab Orchard Review, PANK, Drunken Boat and elsewhere. She is an Associate Professor in the MFA program and English Department at Virginia Commonwealth University and on faculty in the MFA Program at the University of Nebraska in Omaha. She lives in Richmond, Virginia.
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