PRIZE FOR EXPERIMENTAL NONFICTION

The Lifted Brow & RMIT non/fictionLab Prize for Experimental Nonfiction is an annual writing prize that aims to unearth new, audacious, authentic and/or inauthentic voices from both Australia and the world.

The prize opens every year in March and entries close in May. Writers can submit pieces up to 5000 words or equivalent.

Submissions to this prize need to be able to be published on the printed page. We applaud the current focus and fascination with boundary-pushing nonfiction that is published online, but we still believe there’s scope to further experiment on the page, using facts, maybe-facts, words from life, journals, journalism, collage, theory, photography, illustration, tricks, arguments, etc. The essay, as the end of experience, is a malleable form, and we want to celebrate that with this prize.

What is ‘experimental nonfiction’? Like all nonfiction writing it is steeped in facts, real events and real people, with the aim of communicating information, argument, and truth. It differs from traditional non-fiction in that it tries to convey its meaning using unorthodox form, or style, or voice, or point-of-view, or approach/method, or etc. The very best pieces of experimental nonfiction are those in which any unorthodox element adds richly to the meaning and authenticity of the subject matter – and even that it would be difficult to imagine the piece being successful without the experimenting.

PRIZES:

First prize is AU$5000 + publication in The Lifted Brow.
Two runners-up each receive AU$500 and discussion with editors w/r/t publication of their pieces.