Black Warrior Review 9th Annual Non-Fiction Contest Winner

I'm delighted to announce that I've been named the winner of Black Warrior Review's 9th Annual Non-Fiction Contest. You can view the names of all the prizewinners here, or read below for judge Jenny Boully's comments on my essay, Lyrebird:

 So frequently is the second person used in creative composition, but it so infrequently cuts perfectly or strikes as deep a chord as it does in “Lyrebird.” The essay slowly circles its heartbreak through understatement, poetic revelation, imagistic accord. It admits to its shortcomings gracefully, knows there is no way to write what cannot be undone. “Lyrebird” is a deeply affecting gathering, a nest, an accumulation of the fragments of what could have been.