SANDRA CARPENTER PRIZE FOR CREATIVE NONFICTION
This special honor is awarded to an American writer for creative nonfiction identifying as female. Writers can be currently living abroad.
The prize includes a $750 cash award, a tailored edit of the entered work, and an agent consultation.
HOW TO ENTER
By entering the FIRST PAGES PRIZE qualifying entries are automatically considered for the Sandra Carpenter Prize. A separate jury will determine the winner.
2023 SANDRA CARPENTER PRIZE WINNER
CLEOFAS - CANDACE EROS DIAZ
Cleofas is a fictional account of my great-grandmother Cleofas’s life in Durango, Mexico, the series of events that led to her migration to California, and the ways she (re)discovers, (re)imagines, and (re)claims her identity as an Indigenous Mexican woman, wife, and mother becoming an American.
"I knew it was bad luck to let one's hair fly free in a breeze. Anyone could pick it up and use it for magic. I knew this because my mother had taught me this was so."
Bio: Candace Eros Diaz (she/they) is a queer Xicana novelist, short story writer, and essayist. She is currently based in Lisjan Ohlone territory also known as Oakland, California. Find her on Twitter @CandaceErosDiaz
2022 SANDRA CARPENTER PRIZE WINNER
THE TIGER’S PAW PRINT: A MEMOIR OF MYTH AND DESIRE IN THE HIMALAYAS — CALLA JACOBSON
Bio: Calla Jacobson spent a semester in Nepal in 1984, an experience that led to many years of volunteering, working, living, listening, and researching—the latter supported by a Fulbright grant. She has a PhD in anthropology and an MFA in creative nonfiction. She lives in Colorado, where she grew up.
2021 SANDRA CARPENTER PRIZE WINNER
“Ready About” Allison Ellis
Bio: Allison Ellis is a Seattle-based writer whose essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Ploughshares Blog, Amazon Original Stories, SELF, and The Washington Post. She recently earned her MFA in creative nonfiction from Bennington Writing Seminars.
2020 SANDRA CARPENTER PRIZE WINNER
“Grafted Mandarin” Allison Hong Merrill
Bio: Allison Hong Merrill is a Taiwanese immigrant and an award-winning author who shares her Chinese culture with strong storytelling skills to create empowering memoirs.