The 2025 Frederick Buechner Prize was awarded to Mindy Misener.
The 2024 Frederick Buechner Prize was awarded to Eliana Rose Swerdlow. Her essay, “Summoning Sweetcompany,” was published in LETTERS.
The 2023 Frederick Buechner Prize was awarded to Jordan Humphrey. His essay, “Chickens of Faith,” was published by Image Journal.
The 2022 Frederick Buechner Prize was awarded to Misty Kiwak Jacobs. Her essay, “Blackberries,” was published in LETTERS.
About the Frederick Buechner Prize
All current students of YDS, Berkeley, and the Institute of Sacred Music are invited to submit essays and compete for the Frederick Buechner Prize for creative nonfiction. The winner, to be selected by a panel of professors, will receive a $1,000 prize and have his or her essay published in Letters.
The deadline for submissions is announced annually during the Spring term.
The prize is named in honor of the writer and theologian Frederick Buechner, who, among his numerous honors, gave the Beecher Lectures at YDS in the 1976-77 academic year. The Buechner Prize was established thanks to a gift to YDS from the Frederick Buechner Institute.
Essays should be between 1,500 and 5,000 words and contain a religious theme or element. Essays should be unpublished at the time of submission. (An essay that has been accepted for publication at a later date is eligible.) Each student is allowed to submit a single essay.
The winner will be announced at Commencement if that winner is graduating, or at the awards ceremony the following September if they are a continuing student.