Island’s Inaugural Nonfiction Prize Winners
Plans for the inaugural Island Nonfiction Prize began in the thick gloom of mid-2020. There was only one topic then, wasn’t there? Everything else had been lost to the noise. I wholly expected to reject COVID-19 stories out of hand. I thought we had heard all the stories the pandemic had to tell, of lockdowns and cancelled trips, of closed borders separating loved ones, of jobs lost and safety jeopardised and, relentlessly, toilet paper hoarding. In my (limited) imagination, it felt necessary to move away from COVID-19 and think about something else. Anything else. Football. Birds. History. Organic cheese making.
In the almost 300 entries we received were a whole range of experiences, communicated in every kind of nonfiction form. As judges, we were fortunate to have the opportunity to read pieces that were funny, devastating, profound, pithy, lyrical and hard. These entries ran the gamut of nonfiction, from traditional essay form to unapologetically experimental, and pure memoir to absolute universal exploration.
Together with Rae Johnston and Sarah Ayoub, I faced the enormous challenge of choosing a shortlist and winner. I would like first to acknowledge the incredible work of the other judges in their careful reading and consideration of these pieces. Our shortlistees are Verity Borthwick, Katerina Cosgrove, Nicole Melanson and Naomi Parry. While each of their pieces explored loss, love and humanity, as nonfiction writing so often does, these writers all extended their stories well beyond the personal. In issue #162, you will find Borthwick’s search for answers in ‘The Sound of Light’, Cosgrove’s interrogative fury in ‘If You Join the Circle, You Must Dance’, Melanson’s deftly realised grief in ‘Hospitality’, and an investigation into racial injustice in Parry’s ‘A Shadow from Country’.
We were unanimous – and speedy – in choosing our winner. Megan Clement’s piece, ‘In Quarantine’, was exactly the type of story I thought we wouldn’t publish. It’s about COVID-19. It’s about borders and missing family and trying to come home. When I wrote the entry guidelines, I was concerned that a COVID-19 piece might become dated by the time we went to print, but, of course, it hasn’t. ‘In Quarantine’ is a story about family, human connection and the barriers we will try to smash to be close to the people we love. It’s timely, but it’s timeless, too. I know you will love it as much as we did.
Our gratitude to the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund for supporting this prize
The winners and shortlistees are published in Island 162. To order an issue click here