We are thrilled to bring you the results of this year’s Creative Non-Fiction Contest, judged by Angela Sterritt. The wait is over: here are this year’s winners!
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FIRST PLACE: Handful of Her Ashes for the Potter, by Judith Judith Newcomb Stiles
Judith Newcomb Stiles Stiles earns her living as a potter, turning mud into money in the guise of colorful utilitarian pots that last ten thousand years. Throwing on the wheel has given her plenty of head space to write a novel about all the naughty people of Wellfleet on Cape Cod where she lives. HUSH LITTLE FIRE – coming 2025. Alcove Press, dist. Penguin Random House. As a side hustle, she writes for the Italian publication YtaliGLOBAL about all things American.
Handful of Her Ashes for the Potter has all the elements of good storytelling: beautiful writing, intrigue, surprise, and a strong and natural story arch. While the narrative takes the reader through mourning Kazuko’s death, we are utterly immersed in the sublime words of the sub-storylines. The writer has a poignant skill that draws in and anticipates more. — Judge Angela Sterritt
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SECOND PLACE: Maybe You are not Used to Women Talking, by Nadine Monem
Nadine Monem is an Egyptian-Canadian writer, editor and academic working in hybrid forms. Her writing has been supported by the Tin House Summer Workshop, Catapult Books, Wasafiri Magazine, The Sewanee Review, The Kenyon Review, Gulf Coast Journal, The Seventh Wave Magazine, Visual Verse and the Literary Consultancy. She is working on her first book, excerpts of which have won the 2022 Queen Mary University Wasafiri New Writing Prize, and the 2023 Black Warrior Review Nonfiction Prize.
Maybe You Are Not Used to Women Talking skillfully explores political and social issues interwoven through excellent storytelling craft, including good pacing, tension, and turning points. Intertwining personal stakes with broader political struggles highlights writing prowess and the ability to capture imperative research while keeping the reader gripped by the story. — Judge Angela Sterritt
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THIRD PLACE: My Sister Sleeps on the Slope of Mount Sinani, by Adele Barclay
Adèle Barclay is the recipient of the 2016 Lit POP Award, The Walrus’ 2016 Readers’ Choice Award for Poetry and The Fiddlehead’s 2022 Fiction Prize. They are the author of If I Were in a Cage I’d Reach Out for You, which won the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize, and Renaissance Normcore.
My Sister Sleeps on the Slope of Mount Sinani is a compelling and moving story that encapsulates emotional truths and explores universal themes of love, pain, and loss. The writer skillfully illuminates scenes and brings the reader squarely into intimate moments while highlighting their gift with words. — Judge Angela Sterritt
You can look forward to reading Judith and Nadine’s winning pieces in an upcoming issue of Room, 48.2. Adele’s excellent piece is available to read on our website now, via the link above.
As always, we are hugely grateful to everyone who shared their writing with us here at Room. We hope that we get to read your work again in the future: be it for a contest, for a print issue, or for a website feature. Last, but not least, a final thank-you to this year’s judge, Angela Sterritt, for her time, care, and reflections on these, and all of this year’s contest pieces. We are so grateful to have had such an incredible writer, journalist, and author be a part of this year’s contest.
If you’d like to try your hand at submitting to one of our contests, our Short Forms Contest is now open – we would love to read your work!
