Welcome to this special installment of the NüVoices podcast. I’m Jessie Lau, editor and board member of NüVoices.
In 2025, we ran our first ever annual NüStories personal essay contest. We chose the theme “Chinese identity” because we wanted to showcase the diversity of Chinese-ness both inside and outside of China’s borders, and to provide a space for people to grapple with what it means to be Chinese today.
As a bonus episode series for the NüVoices podcast, we have invited three winners of the personal essay contest to read out their essays.
In this episode, you will hear from Chris Yitao Shen, who won third place for her essay, ““What you know (and didn’t know)”
Chris Yitao Shen is an international student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She’s a junior. She’s a creative writing major. She writes to remember. She writes quietly and deletes all exclamation marks. Her favorite book is Slaughterhouse Five. Not really a nonfiction but as thick. She has written a lot and will keep on writing.
Find out more about this year’s essay contest, now open for submissions until MARCH 1! Cash prizes are available.
This year, our theme is In Flux:
We’re looking for essays that interrogate what it means to navigate uncertainty – what are the aftershocks of instability that tend to linger, and what does it mean to process these changes? The theme is, of course, open for interpretation; we want to know what it means to you.
CASH PRIZES:
1st place: USD $100
2nd place: USD $70
3rd place: USD $50
HOW TO SUBMIT:
Please send an email to nuvoices@protonmail.com by March 1st with the subject line “ESSAY CONTEST 2026” that includes:
- An attached Word Doc/PDF with ONLY YOUR ESSAY and NO IDENTIFYING DETAILS (1,200 words max)
- A short bio in the body of the email
Check out last year’s winning submissions, penned by writers responding to the theme of “Chinese identity,” here:
1st place: “You need glasses for Asian faces.” by Juliette Yu-Ming Lizeray
2nd place: “I am a Midwestern Chinese Girl” by Jenna Wang
3rd place: “What you know (and didn’t know)” by Chris Yitao Shen