Association of Writers and Writing Programs Award for Creative Nonfiction

The AWP Prize for Creative Nonfiction will now be The Sue William Silverman Prize in Creative Nonfiction.

February 9, 2021

AWP is delighted to announce that beginning in 2021, thanks to a significant legacy gift by the author and teacher Sue William Silverman, AWP's prestigious prize for creative nonfiction will now be endowed in Sue Silverman's name. "The Sue William Silverman Prize in Creative Nonfiction," offers an award of $2,500 and publication by the University of Georgia Press. The 2021 Judge for the prize is Aimee Nezhukumatathil.

Sue William Silverman is the author of four memoirs. Her most recent, a collection of thematically linked essays, How to Survive Death and Other Inconveniences (University of Nebraska Press, American Lives Series, 2020), was named in the 100 Best of Small Presses and by Big Other as one of the most anticipated small press books of 2020. Her other works include The Pat Boone Fan Club: My Life as a White Anglo-Saxon Jew; and Because I Remember Terror, Father, I Remember You, winner of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs Award Series in Creative Nonfiction. Her memoirLove Sick: One Woman's Journey through Sexual Addiction was also made into a Lifetime TV Original Movie. She is also the author of two poetry collections,If the Girl Never Learns andHieroglyphics in Neon. Silverman teaches at the MFA program at Vermont College of Fine Arts and she is the author of a creative nonfiction craft book entitled, Fearless Confessions: A Writer's Guide to Memoir.

In discussing her gift to AWP, Silverman observed, "I have such a clear memory of putting my manuscript in an envelope, carrying it to the post office as if it might break, or I might break, and mailing it to AWP.

By winning the AWP award, my community of writers took me more seriously… this award gave me a platform upon which to stand, with others in the genre, to undermine critics who label memoir navel gazing. A literary memoir is turning life into art. I now had credentials to make this claim: not only for me, of course, but for the genre itself.

Silverman went on to say that this experience led her to wish to give back to AWP. "I want to embrace AWP and my tribe of writers as I have been embraced. Wherever one is on one's writing path, we are all the same: writers. We embrace truth in a manner only found in art.

Silverman stated that she hoped her gift would help pave the way for other writers. "My legacy? In my own small way to help ensure that future writers are part of, included in, the embrace."

AWP is delighted and honored that thanks to Sue William Silverman's generosity we are now able to ensure the future publication of exceptional works of creative nonfiction through the prize that is now endowed in her name.

AWP's Executive Director Cynthia Sherman says, "We are all so grateful to Sue who has been a friend and long-term supporter of our organization. I know how strongly she feels about the importance of memoir to empowering voices that might otherwise go unheard. We're filled with gratitude for her gift that will help empower new voices long into the future."

Association of Writers and Writing Programs Award for Creative Nonfiction

Source: https://www.awpwriter.org/magazine_media/writers_news_view/4764/the_awp_prize_for_creative_nonfiction_will_now_be_the_sue_william_silverman_prize_in_creative_nonfiction

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