Winners of the 2025 Terry Tempest Williams Prize in Creative Nonfiction

We are pleased to announce that Robin Hemley has selected a winner, a runner-up and three honorable mentions from a slate of finalists. See the full list below. All entrants will receive a copy of the Fall 2025 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 353 entries, and it was a pleasure to read such an abundance of fine nonfiction. 

WINNER
Nancy Geyer, “Playgrounds & Kurosawa’s Ikiru” 

RUNNER-UP
Angie Romines, “Iron Byron”

HONORABLE MENTIONS
Kassie Rene, “My Super is Just Like Every Man in My Life”
Nancy Geyer, “Each Breath: Remembrances”
Joanne Godley, “Don’t We All Breathe the Same Air?”

FINALISTS    
Jacob Hibbard, “Untrounceable”
Jaime Lam, “Select One”
Leslie Larson, “The Landlady”
Adrian Potter, “In the Anxiety House”
Ro White, “Choose Your Own Adventure”

SEMI-FINALISTS  
Leah Asmelash, “How to Take a Picture” 
Allie Dixon, “Tomorrow, Tomorrow”
Sriya Dommaraju, “Echoes of Home” 
Bryce Emley, “Know Me by the Shape of My Leaving” 
April Gifford, “Naïveté, or A Gift of Flowers to Perhaps the Wrong Recipient” 
Herb Harris, “Naming the Colors”
Re'Lynn Hansen, "The Poetry Reading on the New Back Porch"
Siew Hii, “Griever, Teacher, Goodbye” 
Zan Kershaw, “Mad Are We” 
Theresa Lin, “Operation Fiction Writer”
Emily Mathis, "The Weight of Water"
Keya Mitra, "The Third Eye, or How I Learned to Move"
Keya Mitra, “Surrender”
Yelizaveta Renfro, "The Bone Seekers"
Tyler Stallings, “Breathing Fire: Smoke Memory, and the Boundaries We Burn”
Cynthia Waldman, “Of Entropy, Spiral Jetty, and The Great Salt Lake”