Susan Wilson from Clemmons, NC, wins the 2025 Alex Albright Creative Nonfiction Prize with her essay “Foundation Issues.” Final Judge Paul Crenshaw writes about his selection, “Some essays are subtle. They whisper instead of shouting. They allow the reader to come to the conclusion without cataclysm or fanfare. When the world is shouting, as it seems to be all the time now, I was drawn to this quiet essay. I think it’s hard to be subtle. It’s hard not to say too much, it is hard to trust the reader to pick up what you’re putting down. ‘Foundation Issues’ leaves hints, like Hemingway’s iceberg, that there’s a tremendous amount of story lurking just below the surface. A whole other world we can sense through the things not said. Through the hammering and noise. The loneliness and longing. Masterfully done.”
Wilson is a North Carolina native and a graduate of UNC Chapel Hill. Her work has been published in NCLR Online as well as Barely South Review, Flying South and multiple anthologies and has previously been a finalist, a semifinalist, and received an honorable mention for this prize.
This year’s runner-up is Makayla Carmichael from Winston-Salem, NC, with her essay “Lent.” Crenshaw writes, “This one was also subtle, relying a lot on the unsaid. I enjoyed the clipped and cut voice. The feeling of so much hurt and loss between mother and child, the universe – both religious and cosmic – that has grown between them, a universe the narrator is trying to navigate, as each new day unfolds some new dimension. The eternal struggle for meaning as we try to go about our lives, to make sense of everything when the loss we have experienced seems senseless. The search continues – through religion, through relationships, through life. Nicely, and sadly, done.” Carmichael is retired from a career as a CPA.
Crenshaw also selected an Honorable Mention essay, “Wounded and Healing” by Mildred Barya, an Assistant Professor at UNC Asheville and winner of the 2025 Jacobs/Jones African American Literary Prize. Crenshaw remarked, “This braided essay skillfully weaves several different Black stores and histories together. Much to admire in it.” Barya’s Linda Flowers Award-winning essay, “Being Here in This Body,” was published in NCLR 2021.
The other finalists for this year are “Dance for the Little Angel” by Elisa Troncoso-Cabello, “Even in Coyoacán” and “Helene in the Nantahalas” by Loss Pequeño Glazier, “Love Story” by Karen Lauritzen, and “Doniphan” by Lindsey Jai.
We are grateful to final judge Paul Crenshaw, author of multiple essays, including the essay collections Melt with Me: Coming of Age and Other ’80s Perils, reviewed in NCLR Online Spring 2025, This One Will Hurt You (The Ohio State University Press), and This We’ll Defend (UNC Press).
Since its start over 30 years ago, NCLR has been a venue for strong creative nonfiction. The Alex Albright Creative Nonfiction Prize was created in 2015 to honor NCLR’s founding editor. The North Carolina Literary and Historical Association funds this contest. In addition to a monetary prize for the author and publication in NCLR, the winning essay is nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Honorable mentions will also be published in 2025 and receive honoraria. Find subscription information on the website at https://nclr.ecu.edu/subscriptions/.
Produced since 1992 at East Carolina University, and published by the University of North Carolina Press, the North Carolina Literary Review has won numerous awards and citations. The mission of NCLR is to preserve and promote North Carolina’s rich literary culture. NCLR introduces new and emerging writers; reintroduces forgotten authors; showcases work in literary criticism, interviews, book reviews, fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry; and reports on the state’s literary news. Artwork used by exclusively North Carolina artists.
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