Enter the VanderMey Nonfiction Prize!
Every year we award $1500 and publication to the winning writer.
Essay/short memoir must be 5,500 words or less
Entry fee is $20 (includes a copy of Ruminate)
Deadline is Nov. 15th (plus 3-day grace period)
As with all our submissions, we highly recommend reading a copy of the magazine to better understand the type of work we are looking for.
Download a free excerpt from Issue No. 24 featuring our 2012 Nonfiction Prize winning essay: "Father of Disorder" by Jessica Wilbanks.
Download a free excerpt from Issue No. 24 featuring our 2012 Nonfiction Prize winning essay: "Father of Disorder" by Jessica Wilbanks.
Want to read a full issue?
Purchase issues featuring past Nonfiction Prize recipients:
Purchase issues featuring past Nonfiction Prize recipients:
"Without knowing where this essay would go, without knowing whether anything would ever come of this essay, it found a home in Ruminate. This is a beautiful home. Thank you to Ruminate and to finalist judge Camille Dungy for finding a home for these words. They are happy to be here.."
—Jonathan Winston Jones,
winner of the 2018 VanderMey Nonfiction prize for "Bison Clouds" in Issue No. 47: Hauntings
winner of the 2018 VanderMey Nonfiction prize for "Bison Clouds" in Issue No. 47: Hauntings
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