The Sidney Prize and the Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize
The Sidney Prize honors the best magazine essays of the year. It was established in memory of Sidney Cox, professor of English at Dartmouth from 1927 to 1952. The award is administered by a committee of former students, including Robert Frost ’96 and A. B. Guthrie as honorary chairmen and Budd Schulberg ’36 as active chairman. The winners are announced each year at the National Association of Scholars’ annual conference.
In 2023, Nazanin Boniadi was named the winner of the Sydney Peace Prize for her commitment to women’s rights and human rights in Iran. The prize is a significant achievement, and we are thrilled to recognise her for her dedication and perseverance in the face of great obstacles. We hope that the Sydney Peace Prize inspires others to stand up for their beliefs and principles, despite the danger and difficulty.
In the 2024 Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize, Overland was seeking excellent short fiction written in English up to 3000 words, themed around the notion of ‘travel’. Imaginative, creative and literary interpretations were strongly encouraged. This competition was open to all writers, nationally and internationally, at any stage of their writing career. The winning writer will receive $5000 and their story will be published in Overland. Two runners-up will each receive $750.
The finalists were chosen from over 500 entries by our judges, Patrick Lenton, Alice Bishop and Sara Saleh. Our thanks to them for their hard work and commitment to the integrity of our blind judging process. The judges are now busy reading the shortlisted stories and will be announcing their decisions shortly.
Our editors are also grateful to the many of you who have sent us work for consideration. Please note, however, that due to the volume of submissions we receive, we can only consider one piece from each author per year. If you are interested in submitting a work for consideration, we recommend that you subscribe to Overland for one year (four issues) at the special subscriber rate and enter the competition at the Neilma Sidney subscription entry fee.
Earlier this year, the Sidney Awards were handed out to some of the best magazine essayists in the United States and Canada. Many of the essays probed the intersection between science and the humanities. For example, over the summer and fall, intellectual heavyweights Steven Pinker and Leon Wieseltier went toe-to-toe in The New Republic over the proper role of science in modern thought. Pinker took the expansive view, arguing that, despite what blinkered humanities professors may think, science gives us insight into nearly everything.
In 2025, the Hillman Foundation continues to award the monthly Sidney Award for journalism that exposes social and economic injustices. The foundation also offers the Hillman prize to artists and writers whose work is inspired by the philosophies of psychiatrist James Hillman. The foundation’s board of directors includes Workers United president emeritus Bruce Raynor and left-leaning celebrity Danny Glover.