A Guide to Writer's Digest Personal Essay Awards
The Writer’s Digest Personal Essay Awards October 2023 deadline is approaching fast —here’s how to enter and hopefully win. Let’s explore why entering essay contests is a smart strategy for emerging writers, the benefits of this one in particular, and how to review rules and winning entries to get a leg up.
Why is entering writing award contests smart in general?
For several reasons — namely that most contests don’t judge you on past writing (or lack thereof) and provide you with great bragging rights for future publication.
The Writer’s Digest awards also offer publication in print and online. I asked Writer’s Digest editor Amy Jones for more details, and she responded:
“The grand prize winner gets a profile written about them in the print magazine, and we usually work excerpts into the piece. If they give us permission, we’ll post their winning essay online, but only if they give us permission.”
The Writer’s Digest personal essay competition also offers a lot of runner-up spots, so even if you don’t win it can be good for your writing resume.
The Writer’s Digest Personal Essay Awards: Basics
Every fall, Writer’s Digest accepts entries for their Personal Essay Awards, with two deadlines in September and October. You don’t get an edge by entering early — but you do save $5.
If you win first place, you get a significant prize of $2,000. You also get:
The winner has a profile about them and their piece written in the May/June edition of the magazine.
The winner also receives conference registration for the annual Writer’s Digest Conference in New York City ($500+) plus a “Pitch Slam” slot ($149)
Airfare and hotel for the conference
With Pitch Slam, you meet with agents and editors one-on-one, offering a 90-second pitch and hearing their 90-second response.
But even if you don’t win first place, the runners-up get a good deal too:
2nd Place: $1000 + essay title and your name in the magazine
3rd place: $500 + essay title and your name in the magazine
4th-10th place: $100 + essay title and your name in the magazine
Those in 11th through 25th place get a $50 gift certificate for writersdigestshop.com. Now, what can you buy there? Mostly classes, past issues of Writer’s Digest, and critique services. No other merch, really.
Writer’s Digest Awards: How it Works
Writer’s Digest personal Essay Submission
Nothing unusual here regarding submissions. A few notable things to mention:
You must be 18 years old or older to enter. You can enter under and publish with a pen name but must supply your real name for tax purposes if you win.
Writer’s Digest has one-time nonexclusive publication rights, so you retain ownership of your work.
You can submit simultaneously (to this contest and others). However, if your essay is accepted or wins elsewhere, you must inform Writer’s Digest.
Your submission must be original and not previously published in print, digital or online publications. However, the contest will consider essays you self-published on blogs or social media, which not all contests do.
Entries exceeding the 2,000-word limit will be disqualified.
Writer’s Digest personal Essay Deadlines for 2023
Here are the entry and announcement deadlines and nonrefundable fees:
Early bird: 9/1/23 deadline costs $25 per entry
Regular: 10/2/23 deadline costs $30 per entry
Winners announced: 12/31/2023
The Writers Digest Personal Essay Awards: How to Win
So, some writers just fire off essays to every competition or publication. I suggest a different strategy.
Writer’s Digest is a more “popular” writing venue than some other competing magazines (like Writer’s Chronicle, the AWP magazine, or Poets and Writers). The guest judge for this contest reflects that aesthetic, so you’ll want to tilt your piece to fit their taste.
So you probably don’t want a super abstract, artsy and experimental piece. It should be fairly easy to grasp and have a strong hook, a great powerful and vivid theme. More on the guest judge soon.
Read Past Winning Entries
Several recent winners have agreed to let WD publish their pieces online, which means you can see them for yourself and get a sense of the kind of thing that wins.
Here are the three past grand-prize winners.
2021: “Suspended” by J.E. Stamper. This well-written personal essay is a slice of life from the perspective of a high school principal who must deal with an unruly student. Heavy use of scene and characterization.
2022: "In-Between" by Alyssa Rickert. A shorter personal essay in a more lyrical mode, dealing with a pregnancy and loss of a parent.
2023: “Five Nights in Milford” by Toni Lepeska. A longer personal essay that jumps right to the point of sorting through the remainder of her family—”Everyone who ever lived in this house is dead, but my uncle’s hoard is here. It is as tall as I am and as wide as an entire basement wall.”
If you had time, you could use each year’s list and see if you can find other winning entries (second place, third, etc.), which might have been published elsewhere subsequently.
From the Writers Digest winners so far, you can see there’s a theme of death and life and other big-stakes events. Writing about a dog probably wouldn't win the grand prize unless it’s the most unique and amazing story ever told. EVER.
Consider Your Piece
So, now that you know more about the publications and entries, how does your personal essay fit in? Rickert’s piece was more lyrical, while Stamper’s was more reported and concrete. But you get the sense that flash fiction or an extremely obscure academic tone wouldn’t work here.
Some things are obvious. For example, the awards aren’t really looking for political op-eds disguised as personal essays. Each essay contains a narrative arc, so an essay as an excerpt from your unpublished memoir doesn’t work unless it’s self-contained.
Consider the writer’s Digest Judge
Finally, it’s smart to take into account whoever is judging an award. Does the judge have a strong background in flash nonfiction, travel writing, journalism, or another niche? They may well bring those experiences to the judging table. This year’s judge is Estelle Erasmus, who mostly has experience writing for popular outlets like NYT and Washington Post. So she’ll probably be drawn to more mainstream-style pieces, not your super literary hermit-crab piece, but maybe a more straightforward scene-driven essay with a clear lesson.
Understand the Writer’s Digest Rules
Read the contest guidelines and rules carefully. Make sure you understand the theme, word count, submission format, eligibility criteria, and requirements set by the contest organizers. Failure to follow the guidelines could lead to your submission going unread.
FAQs
What is the Writer’s Digest Grand Prize for the Personal Essay Awards?
The Writer’s Digest Grand Prize is $2000 for the annual Personal Essay Awards. This isn’t to be confused with the Grand Prize for the Annual Writing Competition, which is a hefty $5,000. There is also a personal essay category within the Annual Writing Competition.
What is the Writer’s Digest Annual Writing Competition?
The annual competition offered by Writer’s Digest selects almost 500 winners across a wide variety of categories, including memoir/personal essay, humor, non-rhyming poetry, literary short story, genre short story, and more. The grand prize is $5,000, but numerous runners-up in each category win between $25-$1,000.