The National Association of Scholars offers a number of Sidney Awards each year to honor excellent writing and research in our fields. We particularly encourage submissions that highlight the importance of academic freedom and the integrity of scholarship. We also offer the Sidney Hillman Prize to journalists, writers and public figures who pursue social justice and good government through journalism.
The Sidney Hillman Prize is awarded to journalist whose work illuminates the great issues of our time, including the search for a basis for lasting peace, the need for better housing, medical care and employment security for all people, the fight for civil liberties and democracy, and the struggle against discrimination based on race, nationality or religion. The prize was founded in 1996 by the late publisher and philanthropist Sidney Hillman to celebrate journalism that is dedicated to these goals. Hillman was a former editor of The New York Times and founder and publisher of The Daily Press, which was one of the first to include photojournalism in its offerings. In later years, the newspaper expanded to include a news column, a Web site and opinion and analysis.
Overland is pleased to announce the 2023 Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize winner: Annie Zhang, for her story ‘Who Rattles the Night?’ This year, the judges – Patrick Lenton, Alice Bishop and Sara Saleh – reviewed over 500 entries to choose a shortlist of eight pieces. They then chose the winner and two runners-up. The winner will receive $5000 in prize money, and the other two stories will be published online alongside Overland’s autumn 2024 issue.
A special congratulations to all our shortlisted writers!
In their new home, a couple learn to live with ghosts. This story explores the power of imagination, and the way we can project our fears onto those we encounter. The judges were impressed with its eloquence, inventiveness and its ability to make the ordinary seem extraordinary.
This essay reminds us that if we don’t step back occasionally and take a look at the big picture, we risk getting lost in the daily fray. It draws on the insights of Walter Russell Mead’s “The Once and Future Liberalism” in The American Interest to explain that the current political debate is actually a battle between two different versions of liberalism, one that prioritizes small-state Manchester liberalism and the other that emphasizes big-organization managerial state liberalism.