By Kristina Kasparian / Second Place, 2025 Plentitudes Prize in Nonfiction /             The stench clings to the flickering neon...

By Shantanu M / Third Place, 2025 Plentitudes Prize in Nonfiction /             The cement tile on the threshold of my old house would...

By Josina Manu Maltzman / First Place, 2025 Plentitudes Prize in Nonfiction /             We arrive late, a little after 6am, and...

By Patricia McGuire-Hughes / Nonfiction / *for Grandma Mac   A month after Grandma died, her voice visited me for the...

By Kenley Ellis / Nonfiction /   The story of my grandmother did not always make peoples’ eyes wrinkle in pity. It was one just like...

By Cindy Sams / Nonfiction /   There must have been so much blood. On the floor, on the counter, on nineteen-year-old Patricia...

By Tighe Flatley / Nonfiction /   Close your eyes. Think of a Victoria’s Secret store: the hip-hop–infused pop music squeezing...

By Ifrah Yousuf / Nonfiction / “You have to tell your family about us.” Your jaw falls on the floor. Never thought you would ever hear...

By Jack Cooper / Nonfiction / …I learned that there was something shameful about loving boys, especially since I was a boy. I didn’t...

By Sullivan Summer / Nonfiction / When I was 12 Aqua Net was everything. I thought maybe it would be cool but maybe retro but still cool...

By Alisha Acquaye / First Place, 2024 Plentitudes Prize in Nonfiction / ⏳⏳⏳ Imagine my mom as a preteen in Ghana, bursting brown and just...

By Emily Withnall / Second Place, 2024 Plentitudes Prize in Nonfiction / He’d start fights with me on the rare occasions I tried to leave...

By Kosisochukwu W. Ugwuede / Third Place, 2024 Plentitudes Prize in Nonfiction / We are speeding toward Victoria Island—CJ, my driver and...

By Monica L. Woo / Nonfiction / Slow-quick-quick. Slow-slow-quick-quick. My mother demonstrated the steps of the Foxtrot. Gently clasping...

By Melissa Ferrer Civil / Nonfiction / “We talk about the black problem. It might be interesting to see what would happen to the page if...

By Lee Price / Nonfiction / My first great performance was also my first audition. I was twelve years old and rife with devastation. The...

By Kenny C. H. Yu / Nonfiction / My wine room—or writing room, or just a room—was located in an old industrial building. There was a...

By William Luvaas / Nonfiction / We all harbor multiple selves. Freud recognized this in his Id, ego, superego paradigm: unbridled...

By Caio Major / Nonfiction / Riding in the passenger seat of my first boyfriend’s truck, either shortly before or shortly after we made...

By Alan Sincic / First Place, 2023 Plentitudes Prize in Nonfiction / We all of us like to believe, now and again, when the body blooms...

By Peggy L. Shrum / Third Place, 2023 Plentitudes Prize in Nonfiction / A tree just fell. It must have been really close by; I startled...