The Diana Woods Memorial Award in Creative Nonfiction

Judges: Rani Woods, Erin Aubry Kaplan and Bernadette Murphy

“Forty-Two Measures of Rest” reads like the language of music from which it takes its title–rhythmic, urgent, but also full of pauses and grace notes that makes this relatively brief essay a mini-symphony about life and the attempt to make it matter. From the first word, it raises the very biggest questions with intimacy, brutal honesty and a healthy sense of humor and appreciation of the absurd that keep life (relatively) manageable for all of us. Its often startling insights and images are told in prose that is clean and sharp, but simultaneously rich and provocative.

Erin Aubry Kaplan, Author of Black Talk, Blue Thoughts, and Walking the Color Line and DWM Award Special Guest Judge