Announcing the Third Annual Personal Essay Awards Winners

Congratulations to all the winners of the Third Annual Writer's Digest Personal Essay Awards! Read an interview with the First-Place winner Toni Lepeska in the May/June 2023 issue of Writer's Digest.

Want an opportunity to win a WD award? Keep checking our competitions page for upcoming competitions.

1. “Five Nights in Milford” by Toni Lepeska

2. “The Accidental Gardener” by Bichlien Hoang

3. “Fortune House” by Wally Suphap

4. “Another Reason for the Mona Lisa to Smile” by Carol Ikard

5. “Strange Beauty” by Jason Barthe

6. “Baby Don't Go” by Lindsey LeBlanc

7. “The Best Teacher in the World” by Robert Granader

8. “Prey” by Nicole Bosserman

9. “Masterpieces in the Making” by Evan E. Campa

10. “My Mother's Purse” by JS Picariello

11. “Sunflower” by Anna d'Archangelo

12. “Midway to the Tall Grass” by Lesli Christianson-Kellow

13. “Edges” by Jorie Kramer

14. “Grave Matters: Appreciating a Life in a Place of Death” by Kim Clarke

15. “The Dancer at Four” by Susan Tweedy

16. “Baking Lessons” by Ann Winegar

17. “A Memory of Oysters” by Keith G. McWalter

18. “On Fridays I Bake Challah” by Lori Gottlieb

19. “Pandemic Panacea” by Kay Dixon

20. “Jackson” by Patricia Rhodes

21. “The Mixer” by Lee Ann Farmer

22. “A Tangled Nest” by Jennifer Lynn

23. “Trauma Exhaustion in the Time of COVID – Written January 2021” by Amanda Kassner

24. “What Is Love?” by Charla Anderson

25. “Motherhood with Toddlers” by Ariel Thorp