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CRAFT Creative Nonfiction Award

The CRAFT Creative Nonfiction Award for unpublished creative nonfiction up to 6,000 words is open to entries every November and December and awarded the following May. Three winners are selected by a guest judge, with $3,000 and publication awarded. Two pieces are also selected by CRAFT editors in the editors' choice round.

Judges:

2020: Joy Castro

Image shows an open drawer filled with tattoo ink, photographed in black and white; title card for 2022 Creative Nonfiction Award winner, "On Possessing a Body," by Lotte Mitchell Reford.

On Possessing a Body by Lotte Mitchell Reford

By Lotte Mitchell Reford | June 28, 2023

  Content Warning—disordered eating   I At night, I find myself lying in bed near bursting with memory, as if something gone could still rip through me and flower. And yes I let myself get hungrier. It feels impossible to…

Image shows a vintage car parked alongside an empty parking space fronting a red brick wall; title card for 2022 Creative Nonfiction Award winner, "What I Do and Don't Remember from the Days and Nights of Endlessly Smoking Crack and Shooting Heroin," by Christian Bodney.

What I Do and Don’t Remember from the Days and Nights of Endlessly Smoking Crack and Shooting Heroin by Christian Bodney

By Christian Bodney | June 21, 2023

  It’s all a blur. It can be separated into two five-year periods: using alone and using with Haley. Haley had piercings everywhere: the bridge of her nose, her septum, her nipples, her belly button. She had stretched lobes—one had…

Image shows a red building crisscrossed with lines of red lanterns; title card for 2022 Creative Nonfiction Award winner "Where Am I From?" by Amber Wong.

Where Am I From? by Amber Wong

By Amber Wong | June 14, 2023

  “I can only answer the question ‘What am I to do?’ if I can answer the prior question ‘Of what story or stories do I find myself a part?’” —Alasdair MacIntyre   No one would talk. It was as…

Image shows the interior of the Bobst Library in New York City, a series of gold stairwells and library stories; title card for the 2022 CNFA editors' choice selection, "All the Pretty Little Lies," by Amy V. Borg.

All the Pretty Little Lies by Amy V. Borg

By Amy V. Borg | June 9, 2023

  Content Warning—suicidal ideation   The story I tell goes something like this: Did you know I once helped a boy escape from a mental hospital? When I tell it that way, people start imagining things: guns blazing, alarms blaring,…

Image shows a white door on a green garage slashed with sunlight; title card for the 2022 CNFA editors' choice selection, "Tatuajes," by Rubén Degollado.

Tatuajes by Rubén Degollado

By Ruben Degollado | June 7, 2023

  Indiana, in our cold one-car garage, motes of dust falling sideways, the sunlight diffused by the snow covering the ground outside, and we watched Apá working the punching bag, his untaped fists flashing with each swing. Behind my brother…

alt text: image is a color photograph of baby turtles on a beach; title card for Gina DeMillo Wagner's Following Floodlights Instead of the Moon

Following Floodlights Instead of the Moon by Gina DeMillo Wagner

By Gina DeMillo Wagner | June 29, 2022

  The nature center has five baby sea turtles, each in their own 20-gallon saltwater tank. When I see them for the first time, I have to fight the impulse to plunge my hand into the water and scoop one…

alt text: image is a color photograph of classroom chairs pushed up against a desk; title card for Amy Evan's creative nonfiction piece "The Stoics"

The Stoics by Amy Evans

By Amy Evans | June 22, 2022

Content Warnings—death by suicide, gun violence   One morning a science teacher at the high school found the window of his lab smashed and a dead possum on the floor. In my memory, the teacher is all gray: gray pants…

alt text: image is a color photograph of a cockroach; title card for JT Baldassarre's creative nonfiction piece "Roach Farm"

Roach Farm by JT Baldassarre

By JT Baldassarre | June 15, 2022

  We had gone to bed late, on usual terms: “Let’s just talk about this in the morning.” That night we did what we called “No Touch Sleep,” a nickname for exactly what it sounds like, lying next to each…

alt text: image is a color photograph of seedling plants; title card for Gilbert Arzola's creative nonfiction piece "Eight Months"

Eight Months by Gilbert Arzola

By Gilbert Arzola | June 8, 2022

  January Two old men used to live next to each other. One is dead and the other is dying. The one that is dead planted a garden. The one that is dying is my father. My father sits in…

alt text: image is a color photograph of a streak of car lights at night; title card for Myna Chang's creative nonfiction piece "We Were the Wild Hunt"

We Were the Wild Hunt by Myna Chang

By Myna Chang | June 6, 2022

  Riding the night streets wrapped in our tight young skin, brave-stupid and untamed, magic bursting from our pores like new stars. We met under the sign of the flying horse, the vacant shell of an old gas station, our…