Mississippi Review, the literary journal of the University of Southern Mississippi, has long served as a venue for writing that tests the boundaries of form and voice. Its annual contest issue is not a themed anthology but a concentrated gathering of work selected through anonymous reading, a practice that foregrounds the sentence and the structure over the writer's name or prior credits. The 2027 Nonfiction Prize extends this tradition to creative nonfiction, inviting essays that move with the same deliberateness and risk as the journal's fiction and poetry. The selected work will appear in the Summer 2027 Contest Issue. Submissions are read anonymously, and the journal asks that all identifying information be removed from the manuscript. There is no limit on the number of entries, though each submission requires its own $16 fee. Simultaneous submissions are welcomed and encouraged, provided the writer notifies the journal immediately upon acceptance elsewhere. Previously published work is ineligible, as are current and previous employees and students of the University of Southern Mississippi and anyone with a current or previous affiliation with a Mississippi Review staff member. The contest is open from August 1, 2026, until January 1, 2027. Work should be between 600 and 8,000 words. Translations and submissions written primarily in a language other than English are not eligible. What the journal seeks, as ever, is nonfiction that earns its length and its silences—work that does not explain itself too quickly.