Neen Ramos wins the 2026 Island Nonfiction Prize!

We are delighted to announce Neen Ramos’ ‘Statutory declaration of lost property’ has won the 2026 Island Nonfiction Prize. Her prize includes $3,000, publication in Island 179, which hits stands the week of September 7, and a subscription to Island Magazine.

Neen (she/her) is a poet and nonfiction writer based on Dharug Country. Her work explores the complexities of immigrant experience, cultural identity and belonging. She was a recipient of the 2025 WestWords–Varuna Emerging Writers Residency and was named one of Red Room Poetry’s ‘30 in 30’ prompt winners during Poetry Month 2025. Neen is currently developing gods of the margins, her debut collection, which examines the liminal spaces between cultural identity, colonial inheritance and the act of becoming in a new land.

We had amazing entries this year and three judges – Nonfiction Editor Keely Jobe, along with guest judges Hayley Singer and Sam Elkin – judged the works ‘blind’. 

Keely had this to say of Neen’s submission: ‘This startling, experimental essay takes the form of a common legal document to describe the Filipino diasporic experience, an identity position that crosses borders, spans seas and grapples with constant loss. The limitations of the legal document are resounding, and it is delightful to see Ramos test its boundaries at every turn whilst describing with wit and candour her own state of cultural ambivalence. This is a distinctly Australian story, written in the author’s second language, and we’re thrilled it has won this year’s prize.’

Neen’s essay and the other shortlisted essays will be published in Island 179, out next month: subscribe now to make sure you’re among the first to read this fantastic works. If you can’t wait until then, you can read our 2024 Nonfiction Prize winner Cherry Zhang’s essay here.

Congratulations to Neen! And thanks to everyone who entered this year's prize and to our hardworking judges!