Creative Ethnographic Prose Competition
Every year, the Society for Humanistic Anthropology holds a writing contest for creative ethnographic prose writing. The Creative Ethnographic Prose Competition (formerly the Ethnographic Fiction and Creative Nonfiction Competition) celebrates the capacity of story to engage readers and explore anthropological concerns.
Whether fiction or nonfiction in content, narrative or non-narrative in structure, these creative prose pieces reflect insights about the real world seen through an anthropological lens or reflecting an anthropological sensibility. Successful works generally have concrete vivid details, a clear focus, and a consistent authorial voice.
Eligible works are a maximum of 20 pages (approx. 5,000 words), and eligible authors are affiliated with the field(s) or practice of anthropology and/or ethnography in some manner. Submissions should include a 400-word statement explaining how the piece has been ethnographically informed.
There is no entry fee. The first-place winner will receive a monetary award. All winning writers will be recognized at the Society’s Awards Ceremony, invited to publish their winning prose in Anthropology and Humanism, and receive a year of SHA membership.
Refer to the summer issues of Anthropology and Humanism for examples of some of our excellent previous winning pieces. Judges will be announced after prizes have been awarded.
Please direct questions to SHAVictorTurner@gmail.com
©DKavadias, Messinia, Greece, 2014
Past Winners
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1st Prize
Roanne van Voorst, How My Mother Partially Vanished from Life: An ethnographic essay on the Absent Presents in Participatory Healthcare
2nd Prize
Aalyia Sadruddin, Water Boy
3rd Prize
Caroline New, Ostreidae
Honorable Mention
Eric Hoenes del Pinal, La Muerte de Farruko Pop / The Death of Farruko Pop
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1st Prize, Nicolás Díaz Letelier, Where War Dwells
Honorable Mention, Sonakshi Srivastava, We Did Not See Anything
Honorable Mention, Hannah Wadle, Dismantling the Ark
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1st Prize, Margaret Buchac, Don't Stick Your Head Above the Wheat Field
Honorable Mention, Cory-Alice Andre-Johnson, Hunger
Honorable Mention, Azaria Brown, in the days that follow
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1st Prize, Amrapali Maitra, The Most Beloved Cow in Gokulpur
2nd Prize, Aaron Hames, Forgetting
3rd Prize, Petra Rethmann, The Election
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1st Prize, Lisa Arensen, Province of Thieves
2nd Prize, Erika Robb Larkins, Working for Nico
3rd Prize, Laura Meek, Azizi
3rd Prize, Page McClean, Crossing a River Without a Horse
Honorable Mention, Nina Toft Djanegara, Illegible
Honorable Mention, Susan Wardell, Walking memories
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1st Prize, Kyrstin Mallon Andrews, Ay Vieja
2nd Prize, Olivia Guntarik, Michael Jackson in Borneo
3rd Prize, Maureen Pritchard, Whatever Happened to Shaman Sasha?
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1st Prize, Miriam Jerotich Kilimo, Rebirth
2nd Prize, Sowparnika Balaswaminathan, The Outsiders
3rd Prize, Laura S. Grillo, The Boiling Cauldron
Honorable Mention, Gemma Louise Williams, We're All Strangers Here
Honorable Mention, Steven Gonzalez, Silicon Fox
Honorable Mention, Taylor Hazan, Ethnography of a Stone
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1st Prize, Annalisa Bolin, A Ghost Map of Kigali
2nd Prize, Helle Bundgaard, Much Ado about a Ladies Bicycle
Honorable Mention, Jesse Cheng, Why This Killer Should Live
Honorable Mention, Xenia Cherkaev, St. Xenia and the Gleaners of Leningrad
Honorable Mention, Rima Praspaliauskiene, Lenin
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1st Prize, Elisabeth Yarbakhsh, Call
2nd Prize, Caitrin Lynch, A Portrait of Judy Garrity
3rd Prize, Brynn Champney, On a Hill With No Name
Honorable Mention, Kristen Ghodsee, Market Economics
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1st Prize, Katrina Daly Thompson, Secrets of a Swahili Marriage
2nd Prize, Alexandra Vieux Frankel, Waiting for Firat
3rd Prize, Xenia A. Cherkaev, How grades had been gotten for Penguins and Money
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Winner, Hunter Liguore, Court of Last Resort
Honorable Mention, Dannah Dennis, Fifty-Three Kilos
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Winner, Caitlin Baird, Rain
Honorable Mention, Kesia Alexandra, The Street Will Never Love You Like I Do
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Winner, Kim Huynh, The Professional
Honorable Mention, Glenn Harvey Shepard, The Eye of the Needle
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Winner, Thararat Chareonsonthichai, The Fragrance of the Classical Past
Honorable Mention, Cynthia Keppley Mahmood, How Jesse Became a Revolutionary
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Winner, Kristen Ghodsee, Tito Trivia
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Winner, John Colman Wood, Life Damages You
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Co-Winner, John Colman Wood, Cold Patience
Co-Winner, Laura Biagi, The Cure
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Co-Winner, Michael Agrosino, The Shrine
Co-Winner, Don Mitchell, Have You Seen Wanawo?
Honorable Mention, Jessica Falcone, Choli Ke Peeche
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Winner, Roxanne Varzi, Mashti
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Co-Winner, Michelle Bellino, All the Nice Restaurants
Co-Winner, Sally Bellerose, Frenchie's Girls
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Winner, Marisabel Almer, Han Transcurrido Los Años…
Honorable Mention, Tamar Diana Wilson, La Presidente
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Co-Winner, Rachel Newcomb, Gifts
Co-Winner, Tiffany Hamburger, On the Origin of Extinction
Honorable Mention, James Canon, The Day the Men Disappeared
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Winner, Ayala Emmett, Going to America Under the Jacaranda Tree
Honorable Mention, Maura Hanrahan, Caboto 500
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Winner, Don Mitchell, John Brown's Body
Honorable Mention, Eugene Mendonsa, Blood on the Tractor
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Winner, Don Mitchell, John Brown's Body
Honorable Mention, Eugene Mendonsa, Blood on the Tractor
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Winner, Nancy Lindisfarne, The Tortoise
Honorable Mention, Paul Johnson, The Knife
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Winner, Simone Isadora Flynn, A Feast of Mangoes
Honorable Mention, Bruce T. Grindal, Is There a Light in My Eyes?
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Winner, Paul Heinrich, The Informant
Honorable Mention, C. Springwater, The Stories of Red Clay: Man of the Mesa
Honorable Mention, Linda Williamson, Circle of White
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Winner, Loretta Orion, The Siberian Shaman's Dress
Honorable Mention, Kirin Narayan, Come Out And Serve
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Co-Winner, Kate Altork, Working Norman's Birthday
Co-Winner, Maria Nieves Zedeno, Saint versus the Hummingbird
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Winner, Susan Scott-Stevens, The Djinn Tree
Honorable Mention, Grant A. Olson, The Switchmaster
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Winner, Michael Hittman, A Pair of Aces and One Deuce
Honorable Mention, Martha B. Kendall, The Nature of the Evidence
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1st Prize, Ernest Schusky, Korean Exodus
2nd Prize, Yesim Ternar, Christians on the Beach
Honorable Mention, Catherine Callaghan, Ecket
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Winner, Barbara Tedlock, Keeping the Breath Nearby
Honorable Mention, Sarah Waldorf, The Pig Men
*should you have an addition or correction, please contact societyforhumanisticanthro@gmail.com