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 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...

By Cindy Dean Jones / Second Place, 2023 Plentitudes Prize in Nonfiction / And on a day when I most desperately needed hope, when the...

By Judy Peres / Nonfiction / The passenger terminal at the Allenby Bridge in 1995 looked like any other Israeli government office. Seats...

By Finley Williams / Nonfiction / I. Granny never talked about her late husband, my maternal grandfather. I know him mostly through a...

By Michael DuBon / Nonfiction / My cousin Bianca and I stood in front of Chelle, my twelve-year-old sister, hoping she could entertain us...

By Barbara Hughes / Nonfiction / Staring at the tiny log cabin in front of me reminds me of a box sent from a loved one, something...

By Jeanne Althouse / Nonfiction / Once I read a book. It was Christmas Eve and Billie could not sleep. I found him sobbing in the hallway...

By Caio Major / Nonfiction / 1. What It’s Like About a month ago (or maybe six weeks ago, I’m not sure, time has been acting funny...

By Dominic Belmonte / Nonfiction / 1. 1967: “Daddy?” I am thirteen years old, playing Pinners with my best friend Jose Martinez....

By Grant Jarrett / Nonfiction / Her mouth hangs open, her face is pale and pleated, her lips dry and crusty, like stale pastry. She is...