- FINALIST FOR THE 2013 JEFFREY E. SMITH EDITORS' PRIZE
- 2012 Dana Award, Finalist
- Katheryn Krotzer Laborde Creative Nonfiction Prize, 2012
- Writers' Workshop of Asheville Memoir Competition Award
- New Millennium Nonfiction Award, Honorable Mention
- Tara Masih Intercultural Essay Prize, Honorable Mention
- Soul Making Memoir Contest Award
- UNCW MFA in Creative Writing Writing Program, Outstanding Thesis Award in Nonfiction
- UNCW Leutze Scholar, 1st Runner up, 2005
- Eve Cummings Poetry Prize
- Associated Writing Programs National Journals Award Nomination
- Shannon Searles Prize for Fiction
- Connecticut State University Graduate Nonfiction Contest Winner
- Mild Horse Press Fiction Contest, Honorable Mention
- Run for the Hungry / 5k / Wilmington, NC / 2015
- Myrtle Beach Mini Marathon / 13.1 / PATRICIA BJORKLUND. 10/23/2011