2025 Kay W. Levin Award for Short Nonfiction
The Kay W. Levin Award for Short Nonfiction goes to the best piece of short nonfiction (<10,000 words) published by a Wisconsin writer in the contest year. See full contest guidelines.
Judge: Lena Crown
Winner: "High and Dry" by Barrett Swanson
Honorable Mention: Brandon Hansen
History
Kay W. Levin (1925- 1989) was a board member of the Council for Wisconsin Writers in its formative years. After her death in 1990, her family endowed the award for short nonfiction in her memory. Ms. Levin had written children’s fiction before she and her husband, Robert, moved to Cleveland, Wisconsin, in 1974 from Chicago. Slowing to the pace of rural life, she turned her attention to essay writing, using as her inspiration events from everyday life on Kingfisher Farm, where they lived. Her articles on topics as diverse as her daughter’s death in a car crash to the harvesting of maple syrup appeared in The Milwaukee Journal Wisconsin Magazine among other publications. Levin was a champion of Wisconsin writers and the award in her name lives on to encourage essay writers into the future.
Previous Winners:
2024
First Place: "Sewing White Supremacy" by Rebecca Jameison
Honorable Mention: "My Bestseller" by Angela Woodward
2023
“It’s About the Size of a Clenched Fist” (Brevity) Richie Zaborowske (Appleton)
Honorable Mention: “If You Scared, Say You Scared” (Bellevue Literary Review), Sheree L. Greer (Auburndale, FL, formerly Milwaukee)
2022
"Someone Else's Language" (Guernica Magazine) by Kate Vieira, Madison, WI
Honorable Mention: "A Headstone for Zach" (The Delacorte Review) by Lawrence Tabak, Madison, WI
2021
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