Announcing the 4th Annual Personal Essay Awards Winners

Congratulations to all the winners of the 4th Annual Writer’s Digest Personal Essay Awards! Read an interview with the first place winner, Katie Love, in the May/June 2024 issue of Writer’s Digest.

Want an opportunity to win a WD award? Keep checking our competitions page for upcoming competitions.

1. “Killer Punchline: Comedy-Tragedy in the Dating World” by Katie Love

2. “Life According to the Saffir-Simpson Wind Scale” by Wendy Hawkes

3. “My Secret Year” by Deb Lehman

4. “Your Rings and Your Wallet” by Mary Reed

5. “A Hand to Hate or Hold” by Nikki Campo

6. “Bar Mitzvah Boy” by Gerald Marsh

7. “Button and Blue” by Dorothy Wills-Raftery

8. “Counting to Four” by Anne Falkowski

9. “Heavy Like the Moon ” by Madeline Miles

10. “Partner in Progress” by Melanie Verbout

11. “What I Meant to Say” by Hannah He

12. “Dadae” by Victoria McGinley

13. “Tongue” by Raya Mahoney

14. “Personal Essay” by Susan Westlund

15. “How a Kind Cabdriver Brought Me Closer to My Late Husband” by Jan Tranen

16. “You Dead Husband’s Dead Wife’s Wedding Ring” by Anne Gudger

17. “Hollow Point” by Carol Fischbach

18. “Speak” by Annika Hudson-Laursen

19. “No Happy Hour at the Nectar Cafe” by Angelo Fernando

20. “Straightening Away My Culture” by Kira Lopez

21. “Amazing Grace” by Candida (Dida) Gazoli

22. “Beyond the Last Beat” by Tami Looney

23. “Solemn Vigil for Nino” by Tess Enterline

24. “30 Trillion Reasons” by Miera Rao

25. “LIC,11,NY” by Jeanne Favini

26. “Nip Decision” by Lyn Garson

27. “The Bear and The Bolt” by Nikki Mann

28. “An Ode to Phil Walker” by wayne welde

29. “Crossing the Country” by Pamela Cravez

30. “Valley of the Shadow” by Lisa Berryhill