The Eunice Williams Prize.
The Eunice Williams Nonfiction Prize is an annual literary prize given by HerStry. Each year we invite a guest judge to review the entries and select three winners. Our 2026 guest judge was Mia Mercado, author of, She’s Nice Though & Weird but Normal. Mia read through the final short-listed essays and chose the three which stood out to her for their storytelling, structure, and overall narrative arc.
The 2026 Eunice Williams Nonfiction Prize Winners
First Place:
Beloved Ones by Jody Held
Second Place:
My Girlfriend by Shnayjaah Valentine Jeanty
Third Place:
Star Seed Lion Cats by Kim McVicker
Beloved Ones
Mia’s Comments:
I’m not sure how to do this essay justice in a little write-up, but I will say that I have cried every time I’ve read it. It broke my heart and held my hand. It’s a masterclass in writing gracefully and one of the most beautiful pieces of writing I’ve had the privilege to read. I’m so grateful it exists. Read.
Mia’s Comments:
When writers talk about crafting an authentic voice, this is what they are trying to emulate. There are so many lines in this essay that made me go, damnit, that’s clever. ("Internal astronomy”! “A scalpel of a person”!) I look forward to reading anything and everything this author writes in the future. I'll recognize their voice before I even read the byline. Read.
My Girlfriend
Mia’s Comments:
I love writing that makes me fall in love with whatever and whoever the author loves, and I loved getting to know the women in this essay. The specificity is effortless and funny – every detailed observation is both purposeful and seamless among the broader strokes of the story. I will think of this piece every time I see a graffitied penis on the street <3. Read.
Star Seed Lion Cats
Read the 2026 Winners:
Contest Guidelines
All work must be previously unpublished.
Essays: 5,000 Fiction: 10,000 (Note, we are not currently taking poetry for this prize)
Work must be submitted in a word document (please no PDFs). Must be in 12pt Times New Roman or Calibri font, double spaced.
All work is judged blind, please do not put any identifying information on your document. Work with identifying information will be discarded without being read.
Writers are asked to submit a third person bio. Cover letters are fine but, honestly, we don’t care. It’s the quality of the writing we are looking for, not the amount of times you’ve been published.
Do not submit more than one piece.
While your work is under consideration we ask that you DO NOT submit it elsewhere.
HerStry centers the experiences of women identifying persons. We’re looking for work from bigender/polygender persons, cisgender women, intergender persons/intersex persons, non-binary persons/gender non-conforming persons, transgender women/transfeminine persons, two-spirit. In other words, if you are a cis man, please refrain from submitting.
Winning Entries
First Place: $400
Second Place: $250
Third Place: 100
Who Was Eunice Williams?
And Why did We Name Our Contest After Her?
First, Eunice Williams was not a writer. But at HerStry, our first mission is to amplify women’s stories and Eunice is a woman we want you to know about.
In 1704 Eunice and her family were abducted in a raid at Deerfield, Massachusetts by the Kahnawake Mohawk people. Eunice’s story is not uncommon, especially in the early 1700s. What is uncommon about her story is that while the rest of Eunice’s family was redeemed from their captors, Eunice chose to stay. Eunice, a child of Puritans, found freedom with the Kahnawake Mohawk people. She was adopted by a Mohawk mother, married into their community, and, over time, forgot how to speak english all together.
We want to honor Eunice’s story, and the life she chose for herself. Although she was just a young girl when she was taken captive, she made it clear that she did not want to be redeemed out of captivity and that for her, it wasn’t captivity. For her it was finding a place where she belonged.
HerStry’s mission is to empower women through storytelling. Eunice’s story is one of courage, resilience, and finding the strength to forge her own path.
Further Reading on Eunice Williams
The Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story From Early America by John Demos
An unredeemed Captive: Being the Story of Eunice Williams by Clifton Johnson
Puritan Girl, Mohawk Girl: A Novel by John Demos
The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Julia Nusbaum
