Astrid Joutseno(Swan) is the winner of the 6th annual Hogan Prize

Astrid Joutseno (Swan) is the winner of the 6th annual Hogan Prize with her essay Becoming D/other: Life as a Transmuting Device (a/b: Autobiography Studies, 35:1, 81-96, 2020). The prize is awarded for “an outstanding essay published in a/b Auto/Biography Studies”. This time the judge for the prize was the renowned life writing theorist Sidonie Smith.

In her remarks Smith says the following:
“[Joutseno’s] titular concept of the D/other functions as ‘an exercise in articulating what is taking place’ in her life now; and her essay unfolds as a meditation on the meaning of life, of the self/other tension/balance pieced together and pressed through a process of posthuman mourning. Joutseno confronts imminent death through the mode of autotheory.”

Dr.Smith’s response to the essay will be published in the 40th Anniversary issue of the journal (40:2, 2025) along with the announcement of the award.

Read the winning essay here.