Winners Announced for the 2023 Multimedia Essay Contest
We received so many excellent submissions for our multimedia essay prize, and we’re grateful to everyone who participated.
Our judge, Kelcey Ervick has selected the choose-your-own-adventure essay “Remapping an Unraveling” by Lucy Jayes as the winner of this year’s Fourth Genre Multimedia Essay Contest.
Read the judge’s statement below:
This is unlike any Choose Your Own Adventure Story I’ve ever experienced. At first I was reading, asking myself, What would I do, what should I do? Then I would replay, wondering what the narrator should do, wondering what she did do, what she thought and felt about. And each time I was like, Oh no. Each dead end was wishful thinking on my part, an end to a story that didn’t happen. And I’d go back and replay for the one that did happen, thinking, No, not that. So, the setup sucks you in, but it’s no gimmick. The narrator acknowledges in the essay that the brain—even one that has learned to crave the dopamine rush of danger—can be rewired, that it can be trained to respond differently to situations, one choice at a time. The form enacts the difficulty of each of those choices. The story and insightful reflections would have made for a powerful essay in a more traditional linear form, but the Choose Your Own Adventure form is utterly immersive, pulling the readers’ brain (and heart) into the story, one choice at a time. It’s terrifying, it’s exhilarating, it’s heartbreaking, it’s revelatory.
Lucy Jayes is an essayist and poet residing in the horse capital of the world. She received her MFA from the University of Kentucky where she was awarded the Betsy Owen Combs Recruitment scholarship and the MFA Award in Creative Nonfiction. Her work has appeared in Vast Chasm, Deep Overstock, Bombfire, and The Big Windows Review. She works as a freelance writer and Development Associate for the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning in Lexington, KY. Find her on social media @LucyAJayes
Lucy will receive a $500 prize, and you can experience her essay by following the link below:
Lucy Jayes
Lucy Jayes is an essayist and poet residing in the horse capital of the world. She received her MFA from the University of Kentucky where she was awarded the Betsy Owen Combs Recruitment scholarship and the MFA Award in Creative Nonfiction. Her work has appeared in Vast Chasm, Deep Overstock, Bombfire, and The Big Windows Review. She works as a freelance writer and Development Associate for the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning in Lexington, KY. Find her on social media @LucyAJayes
HONORABLE MENTIONS
In addition, judge Kelcey Ervick selected two honorable mentions for publication on our website:
“The Name Project,” by Julian Long, which Ervick described as a “brilliant meta-memoir experience with amazing production quality.”
“The Body is a Vessel” by Jesse Lee Kercheval, called “Terrific” by Ervick.
