As a bonus episode series for the NüVoices podcast, we have invited three winners of our 2025 NüStories personal essay contest to read out their essays. In this episode, you will hear from Chris Yitao Shen, who won first 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.