Say Hello to the Winners of Narratively’s 2023 Memoir Prize!

We combed through over 700 submissions to choose these three finalists—we’re excited to announce them to the world and share their stories with you in the coming weeks.

Collage by Yunuen Bonaparte

The Narratively 2023 Memoir Prize is the second we’ve done of its kind, and the third prize we’ve done altogether (last year, we did a Profile Prize as well), and let us tell you that, by far, the best and most rewarding part of running these contests has been getting to read tons of excellent stories from talented people with so many different perspectives. We want to deeply thank everyone who submitted — we feel honored that you shared your very personal, funny, emotional and often never-before-told tales with us and, in turn, your lives. 

Since we received so many submissions, choosing only three winners was naturally not an easy process. But we eventually got there, with the help of our wonderful editors and submission readers, and our esteemed guest judge, bestselling memoirist Stephanie Land. We’re doing things a little differently than we’ve done in the past, this time publishing essays from the two finalists first, building up to the winner. We’ll be …