AWP is excited to announce our judges for the 2025 AWP Award Series! This year AWP invites book-length entries between January 1 and February 28, 2025. Judges will select one winning manuscript in creative nonfiction, the novel, poetry, and short fiction by late summer 2025. Winning authors receive a cash prize between $2,500 and $5,500 and publication by one of our partner presses.
2025 Sue William Silverman Prize for Creative Nonfiction
Photo credit: Holly Andres
Cheryl Strayed is the author of the number one New York Times bestseller Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, which was made into an Oscar-nominated film. Her bestselling collection of Dear Sugar columns, Tiny Beautiful Things, was adapted for a Hulu television show and as a play that continues to be staged in theaters nationwide. Strayed’s other books are the critically acclaimed novel Torch and the bestselling collection Brave Enough, which brings together more than one hundred of her inspiring quotes. Her books have sold more than five million copies around the world and have been translated into forty languages. Her award-winning essays and short stories have been published in The Best American Essays, The New York Times, The Washington Post Magazine, Vogue, and elsewhere. Strayed has also made two hit podcasts: Dear Sugars, which she cohosted with Steve Almond, and Sugar Calling. She lives in Portland, Oregon.