In an era of short attention spans and clickbait headlines, longform journalism and thought pieces remain effective tools for informing, provoking and challenging readers. The sidney prize is one such tool – recognizing the best examples of these pieces in print and online.
Every year, the New York Times selects a handful of the best long-form essays published in its pages and in other top magazines and newspapers. Hilton Als writing for the New Yorker, Ed Yong writing for The Atlantic and other heavy hitters at top-tier publications are among those to have won sidney prizes in recent years.
The annual prize, named after the late Sidney Cox, seeks “that piece of undergraduate writing which most nearly meets the high standard of originality and integrity which Mr. Cox established for himself and his students.” A committee in Hanover reviews submissions, choosing an essay that best addresses a nominated question. The winner receives a $500 honorarium and a certificate designed by New Yorker cartoonist Edward Sorel. Anyone may nominate a piece for consideration; the deadline is the last day of each month.
Other notable Sidney Prizes include the Overland Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize which was established in 2023 to reward outstanding short fiction themed loosely around the notion of travel. The judges for this year’s competition, Patrick Lenton, Alice Bishop and Sara Saleh, reviewed over 500 entries to choose a winner (Claire Aman for ‘Who Rattles at Night?’) and two runners-up. The winning entry will be published in Overland’s print edition while the runners-up will have their work featured online.
In the field of politics and international relations, there’s the Sydney Peace Prize which honours leading global voices who promote peace with justice, human rights and nonviolence. Past winners have included Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Mary Robinson and Joseph Stiglitz.
More specifically, the award recognises those who “have demonstrated a strong commitment to addressing the root causes of conflict and hatred” through their activities in promoting peace with social equity and the principles of peace with justice and non-violence. The prize is sponsored by the city of Sydney, Australia and is bestowed annually to a nominated candidate.
Other Sydney Prizes include the Abbot Payson Usher Prize, which honors exceptional scholarly books on the history of technology; the Sidney Edelstein Prize, which is awarded to an author of a dissertation-based article in Consumer Culture Theory; and the Joan Cahalin Robinson Prize, which recognizes an early career scholar who presents at SHOT’s annual conference for the first time. For more information on these and other Sydney prizes, visit the official site.