Announcing the Winners of the True Romance Writing Prize

Earlier this year, we were lucky enough to team up with Emma Roberts and Karah Preiss of Belletrist to bring you this very special contest. Today, we're announcing the winners!

Each time we host a prize — and this is now our fifth run — we have a mere moment of worry at some point in the process along the lines of, What if we don’t receive enough great essays to choose the winner? Followed immediately by a slew of essays so fantastic that narrowing it down is the difficult part, not the other way around. This time, of course, was no different — one of our first-round readers shared early on that we were “getting thrilling love stories” — and we are happy to share the winners with you today.

Shout out to actor Emma Roberts, acclaimed producer Karah Preiss and their production company/book club, Belletrist, for dreaming up — and collaborating on — this prize with us, and to Emma and Karah for helping us pick the final winners. We’re so grateful for your keen eyes and sharp taste.

Thank you again to everyone who submitted and shared their writing with us — we really enjoyed reading your pieces and we hope to hear from you again soon in some capacity, whether it’s to submit to a future prize, share a pitch with us or just weigh in with your #WeeklyWin over at our new, sister site Narratively Academy. And for now, without further ado, an announcement of our winners…

For our longform category, the grand prize winner is Olivia Shaffett, a writer and communications professional from Louisiana who is currently based nowhere and everywhere as she travels around the world. And the two finalists are Lisa Grossman, an astronomy writer and queer mom who is working on a memoir about science, grief and motherhood from her new home in Minneapolis; and Charlotte, North Carolina-based writer Nikki Campo, who crafts essays, reported stories and humor pieces about parenting, grief and health.

For the shortreads, the grand prize winner is Maggie Hart, a writer and leukemia survivor from Colorado currently pursuing a master’s degree in rhetoric and writing studies at the University of Oklahoma. And the two finalists are Katharine Coldiron, the author of Ceremonials, Junk Film, Wire Mothers and Out There in the Dark; and singer-songwriter and recording artist Bar Scott who writes about everyday life, music and writing.

We can’t wait to share each of their wonderful essays with you in the coming weeks and months — so stay tuned! (Note: We have linked to the essays above as they’ve published and we’ll continue to do so till they’re all live.) Congratulations again to all of the winners, and thank you to all who submitted. Keep your eyes on our new sister site Narratively Academy for upcoming announcements about new calls for pitches and future writing prizes. ♥️