Prairie Schooner has announced Michael Metivier as the winner of the 2022 Summer Nonfiction Essay Contest for his essay “Hold On Magnolia.”

The contest was judged by Jerald Walker. Metivier will receive a prize of $500, and his essay will appear in the Spring 2023 edition of the journal.

“’Hold On Magnolia’ is a thoughtful, beautifully written essay that deftly explores familial bonds, both near and distant,” Walker, award-winning non-fiction writer, said. “I was particularly struck by the writer’s balance of historical research and personal narrative, a feat rarely executed with such dexterity in so concise a narrative.”

Metivier’s essays have appeared in Green Mountains Review, Northern Woodlands and LAAB, and his poems have been published in journals including Poetry, Kenyon Review, Bennington Review and African American Review. A split chapbook with Erín Moure, Glacial, Erratic/Arborescence, was published by Columba in 2022. He is an assistant editor at Merriam-Webster and lives with his wife and daughters in Vermont.

This year’s runner-up is Kristin Marie’s essay, “She’s Trouble,” which will be published in a forthcoming edition of the Schooner.

“I admire ‘She’s Trouble’ as much for its witty, lively prose as the endearing narrator, a twenty-something law student whose failed pursuit of love via ‘man-shopping’ instead delivers wisdom she reflects on her own and her mother’s decision to end a pregnancy. It’s timely, intelligent and necessary,” Walker said.

Kristin Marie is a writer from New England. Her work has appeared in South Florida Poetry Journal, Lunch Ticket and The Seventh Wave. She is a mentor with the NYC-based organization Girls Write Now.

The Schooner’s editors have also selected “Laid There” by Kianna Eberle for publication in a forthcoming edition of the journal.

Learn more about Prairie Schooner and consider subscribing to receive more great nonfiction, poetry and fiction.

Founded in 1926, Prairie Schooner is a national literary quarterly published with the support of the English Department at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. It publishes fiction, poetry, essays and reviews by beginning, mid-career and established writers.