This anthology collects the ten winners of the 2012 Best American Newspaper Narrative Writing Contest at the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference, which is hosted by the Frank W. Mayborn Graduate Institute of Journalism at the University of North Texas. The contest honors exemplary narrative work and encourages narrative nonfiction storytelling at newspapers across the United States.

Anthology of writing by the ten winners of the 2016 Best American Newspaper Narrative Writing Contest at the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference. The pieces are published in order of places awarded: Barry, “The Boys in the Bunkhouse,” (1st place); Goffard, “The Favor,” (2nd place); McCrummen, “A Father’s Scars,” (3rd place), and runners-up, Bomey, Gallagher and Stryker, “How Detroit was Reborn”; Hesse, “Love and Fire”; Schweitzer, “Chasing Bayla”; Varble, “Then the Walls Closed In”; Kimberlin and Bryant, “Dangerous Minds”; Harbarger, “Fred Nelligan”; and Johnson, “Murray's Problem."

Anthology of writing by the ten winners of the 2016 Best American Newspaper Narrative Writing Contest at the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference. The pieces are published in order of places awarded: McCrummen, “An American Void” (1st place); Goffard, “Fleeing Syria: The Choice” (2nd place); Schweitzer, “The Life and Times of Strider Wolf” (3rd place), and runners up, Hubert, “Genny’s World”; Phillips, “Inside an FBI Hostage Crisis”; Johnson, “Patient, Surgeon Work Together”; Reich, “Norman Malone’s Quest”; Cox, “Telling JJ”; Cramer, “The Boy Who Burned Inside”; and Barton, “Unsolved: A Murdered Teen, a 40-year Mystery."

Anthology of writing by the ten winners of the 2016 Best American Newspaper Narrative Writing Contest at the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference. The pieces are published in order of places awarded: McCoy, “It Was an Accident, Baby” (1st place); Dreier, “A Child’s Scraped Knee” (2nd place); Baker, “The Power of Will” (3rd place), and runners up, Cox, “A Marine’s Conviction”; Goffard, “Framed”; Thompson, “The Long Way Home”; Kleinfield, “Fraying at the Edges”; Kuchment and Thompson, “Seismic Denial”; Caruba, “55 Minutes”; and Wangsness, “In Search of Sanctuary.”

This anthology collects the winners of the 2019 Best American Newspaper Narrative Writing Contest at UNT’s Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference. First place winner: Eli Saslow, “It Was My Job, and I Didn’t Find Him” (The Washington Post), narrates the life of a former officer at the Parkland high school shooting. Second place: Elizabeth Bruenig, “What Do We Owe Her Now?” (The Washington Post), is the story of a high school rape victim who received no justice. Third place: Hannah Dreier, “The Disappeared” (ProPublica), follows a mother who lost her teenage son to gang violence. Runners-up include Jamie Thompson, “Standoff” (The Dallas Morning News); Lane DeGregory, “Lincoln’s Shot” (Tampa Bay Times); Jenna Russell, “The World, the Stage, the Way Ahead” (The Boston Globe); Evan Allen, “Under a Dark Sky, a Baby is Born” (The Boston Globe); Lisa Gartner, “She’s Taught at the Parkland High School for 14 Years. Can She Go Back?” (Tampa Bay Times); Claire McNeill, “So You Remember the Student Who Was Shot at FSU? He’s Pretty Sure We’ve All Moved On” (Tampa Bay Times); and Bethany Barnes, “Targeted” (The Oregonian).

This anthology collects the eleven winners of the 2018 Best American Newspaper Narrative Writing Contest at the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference, an event hosted by the Frank W. Mayborn Graduate Institute of Journalism at the University of North Texas. First place winner: Kale Williams, “The Loneliest Polar Bear” (The Oregonian), relates the tale of Nora, a baby polar bear raised by humans in a zoo after being abandoned by her mother. Second place: Patricia Callahan, “Doomed by Delay” (Chicago Tribune), reveals the experiences of Illinois families with children diagnosed with Krabbe—a deadly disease that healthcare professionals could have screened for at birth, and ultimately treated, if it weren’t for government bureaucracy. Third place: Christopher Goffard, “Dirty John” (Los Angeles Times), is an investigative story that explores the dynamics of domestic violence with a nuanced, psychologically complex narrative of family and survival. Runners-up include John Woodrow Cox, “Twelve Seconds of Gunfire” (The Washington Post); Tom Hallman Jr., “His Heart, Her Hands” (The Oregonian); Jenna Russell, “The Last Refugee” (The Boston Globe); Lisa Gartner and Zachary T. Sampson, “Wrong Way” (Tampa Bay Times); Casey Parks, “About a Boy” (The Oregonian); Jennifer Emily, “Hope for the Rest of Us” (The Dallas Morning News); …

Anthology of the previously-published newspaper articles by the eleven winners of the 2018 Best American Newspaper Narrative Writing Contest at the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference. The pieces are published in order of places awarded: Williams, “The Loneliest Polar Bear” (1st place); Callahan, “Doomed by Delay” (2nd place); Goffard, “Dirty John” (3rd place); and runners-up: Cox, “Twelve Seconds of Gunfire”; Hallman “His Heart, Her Hands”; Russell, “The Last Refugee”; Gartner and Sampson, “Wrong Way”; Parks, “About a Boy”; Emily, “Hope for the Rest of Us”; Babb, “There’s Nowhere to Run”; and DeGregory, “The House on the Corner.”

Anthology of writing by the ten winners of the 2016 Best American Newspaper Narrative Writing Contest at the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference. The pieces are published in order of places awarded: Saslow, "Into the Lonely Quiet" (1st place); Moskowitz, "Marathon Carjacking" (2nd place); Johnson, "The Course of Their Lives" (3rd place), and runners up, Goffard, "The Manhunt"; McCrummen, "Wait—You Described It as a Cloudy Feeling?"; Phillips, "The Lobotomy Files"; Applegate, "Taken Under"; Kissinger, "A Mother, at Her Wits' End"; Kruse, "The Last Voyage of the Bounty"; McKinnon, "Alone on the Hill" ; Newall, "Almost Justice"; and Schweitzer, "Together, Despite All."