Claudia Ann Seaman Award
Nomadland or: The Great American Travesty
Bella Zhou
Changshu, Jiangshu, China
United World College
Poetry
"This piece was previously published in GASHER Journal, April 2023"
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EDITORIAL PRAISE
“Nomadland or: The Great American Travesty” is a piece that builds momentum in its grief, breathlessly pulling the reader into its geographical narrative. Through intimate, gutting, and often unsettling recounts of nature, kin, and youth interspersed with strikingly visceral images, the speaker grapples with the painful entanglement of their father’s passing and their own identity. As the piece’s conclusion slows to a halt, poignantly articulated abstractions color the empty space, sharply mirroring the speaker’s profound losses.
Bella Zhou is a sophomore at UWC Changshu China. She is the Editor-in-Chief of The Greyhound Journal and her work has been previously published or is forthcoming in GASHER, Teen Ink, and the New York Times. She can be found in Vancouver, CA listening to Bon Iver or filming on her Sony A7M4.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR