Jack Wagner

After deliberation, the third Hodler Prize was awarded jointly to three narrative works: the podcast “Otherworld” by Jack Wagner, the video game “Skate Story” by Sam Eng, and the novel “Jaw Filler” by Charlie Markbreiter and Maz Murray. A special Witness Award is given to the documentary “2000 Meters to Andriivka” directed by Mstyslav Chernov.

« Otherworld demonstrates a rare narrative rigor in the way it treats personal testimony. Each episode explores the faithful boundaries of narrative nonfiction and insists that uncertainty itself can be a legitimate and compelling subject. Rather than sensationalizing the paranormal, the podcast is interested in what it means to live with an experience that seems impossible to assimilate into conventional language or logic. Through careful editing and sustained attention to voice, each episode preserves the integrity of the storyteller while refusing easy conclusions, allowing the voice to remain intact while situating the account within a larger emotional and intellectual context. What emerges are not spooky ghost stories, but rigorous acts of self-examination. I love it because it consistently draws me into a state of abstract openness, and makes me ponder whether experience itself is the vulnerable life-force we call “truth.” Ottessa Moshfegh, Hodler Prize 003 Jury