The Diana Woods Memorial Award in Creative Nonfiction

Judges: Rani Woods, Tananarive Due, Bernadette Murphy

Written with deceptive simplicity, ‘This is the Way we Wash the Clothes’ is a memorable homage to a mother’s casual strength. The richly detailed writing mimics the seemingly random associations that shape a child’s memories. This piece is a moving portrait of a mother and daughter learning life lessons from a wringer washer from another era, a frozen slice of time.

Tananarive Due, Author of My Soul to Take, Blood Colony, and Joplin’s Ghost, and DWM Award Special Guest Judge