It’s a fact awards

Do you ever feel that non-fiction writers are the poor relations of the Vocal community. I do!

Those nice people at Vocal Media heap much sought-after $200 prizes on poets and story smiths, left, right and center, while leaving us fact factors out in the cold.

It just ain’t right,” says largely unknown former business journalist, Ray Taylor (aka even less well-known author of murder mystery and other fictional tosh, Raymond G. Taylor). “We ought to get a bite of the $$$$ pie too.”

Well... now you can.

Today, we (I an’ I) are launching the fabuloso Vocal Not At All Fictional awards. Yea!!!

You too can win a Not At All Fictional (NAAF) award, without doing a thing. Really? Yes!

International Not At All Fictional awards

Rewarding those content creators whose focus is factual reporting, reviews, real (not fake) news and other serious, properly researched, high-brow stuff. Although not-so-serious, not very high-brow articles and opinion pieces are also welcome. Basically, anything that is not just made up. Why should the novelists and short story authors (not to mention poets) have it all their own way, right?

The Prizes

$15,000 is on offer to the winner of the Pulitzer Prize. If you win a NAFF award it will undoubtedly put you on the path to a Pulitzer, and with a $15.00 down payment. $15.00 is the prize on offer for this challenge awards prize competition. When you do win the Pulitzer, please remember us in your acceptance speech.

Only Vocal+ creators will be eligible for a cash prize, payable as a tip.

Other (not V+) Vocal creators may be nominated for recognition, they will just be ineligible for a prize.

First prize: $15 for the nominee PLUS $5 for the person nominating them, subject to Vocal+ subscription.

Depending on the response, the organisers may (at their sole discretion) offer additional and/or bigger prizes.

How to enter

In addition to encouraging more content creators to create non-fictional content, the NAFF awards organisers want to encourage Vocal community support. On this basis, though you cannot nominate your own work for an award, you can and should nominate other creators that you rate for their talent, their focus on the truth, or their insistence on writing real stuff about the real world and its real people.

Their work might not necessarily be found in such popular communities as fiction and poets, but will appear in some of the other, less frequented, communities such as Lifehack, Interview, Humans, Critique, Cleats, Earth, Education, or, dare I say, PRIDE? Or Serve, Viva, Wander, Chain.... come on, you get the idea, anything that is not fictional or poetical. These two are of course great communities to be involved in but, well, there is other stuff that is more... more... more... well, more real, yeah?

If there is a non-fiction content creator, any non-fic community, that you admire, or an author of an outstanding non-fiction story you have recently read, just put a link to the story in comments below. Please also give your reasons for the nomination.

When submitting your nomination, please answer the following questions:

1. What is the name of the creator you are nominating?
2. What is the name of the outstanding non-fiction work you think they deserve to be recognised for? Include a link to the story on Vocal.
3. What are your reasons for nominating this person/article?

Creators cannot nominate themselves, only other creators

Artificial Intelligence?

Why not? It will be a sad day, indeed, if an AI/LLM/Lalam can win a prize ahead of all the wonderful peopleoid creators we have here on Vocal. So please feel free to nominate a Vocal creator for an AI-generated piece, if you think it is good enough. Certainly there is nothing wrong with using a Lalamo to help research your material and/or to generate part of your work, with a suitable explanation and/or critique. Either way, any AI-generated work beyond basic search and such must be clearly marked.

All work submitted must in any case comply with Vocal and Vocal community standards.

Competition rules

Who needs 'em?

• Only those non-fics published between 1 January 2025 and the moving goal-posts of today will qualify for entry.
• Nominations must, in all cases, come from someone other than the author. If you ain't got no friends or admirers to nominate you, slip me a private message with a link to your best piece, along with a promise of a suitable bribe, and I will do my best to put you forward (but without contractual obligation).
• Only one nomination allowed per person, so you have to think about which author and story really deserves an award. Please feel free to mention others worthy of recognition but you must make it clear who gets your vote as best of the best.
• Feel free to write a new non-fic story and hope (or bribe) someone to nominate you.
• There is nothing to stop you entering into shady deals such as: 'You nominate me and I will nominate you, yeah?'
• Otherwise, most of what you need is already said. Anything else will be made up as we go along.
• Deadline: As yet to be set.

Awards criteria

• Only the best of the bestest will win. Enthusiasm of comments and additional support from others will be taken into account.

Get nominating folks!