Awards & Other Recognition

  • Top Work of Journalism of the Decade (longlist, for A Kind of Mirraculas Paradise), NYU Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, 2020

  • The Narratively Untold Story Award (first), 2018

  • PEN Writing For Justice Fellowship semi-finalist, 2018

  • UC Berkeley, 11th-Hour Food & Farming Fellowship (co-administered by Michael Pollan), 2017

  • MacDowell Fellow, 2017

Press Recognition

  • “Sandy Ernest Allen is a ‘drop everything’ byline for me and should be for you, too.” – Christine Grimaldi, The Flytrap, Best of 2024

  • I’m quoted in this article by Jude Doyle for Xtra about my newsletter What’s Helping Today on how trans people are facing despair.

  • I’m also quoted in this post, from Lindsey Adler’s Critical Thinking, on the power of cis allies getting angry on trans folks’ behalf …

  • In early 2025, What’s Helping Today was also featured in on Today in Tabs (my post for cis allies who feel despair)

  • Mad Chat, my independently produced, 10-episode podcast on pop culture and mental health, was praised by O Magazine, Self, The AV Club and The New York Times — and named a top 100 podcast of the year by the Bello Collective. Visit this page for more on the show or its site for even more, including transcripts. You can listen to (still / exclusively) on to Mad Chat on YouTube. I hope to restore the episodes elsewhere eventually.

  • My quarantine-era online bread-making classes were discussed in this article by Katie Okamoto from Taste.

  • My first book A Kind of Mirraculas Paradise: A True Story about Schizophrenia (Scribner) was praised by The Los Angeles Times, Esquire, The Boston Globe, The New Republic, O Magazine, Kirkus Reviews, Paste Magazine, LA Review of Books, Library Journal, Bustle, Booklist, and Stacy Marie-Ishmael’s newsletter The Main Event, amongst others. It was also named a most-anticipated or top work of the year by: Esquire, Vogue, CBC, Bitch, The Week, The Rumpus. I also wrote and spoke about the book for numerous outlets, including The Cut and This American Life (see below).

  • About AKOMP, my friend Heben Nigatu (television writer and former Another Round host) said: "I know the decision to write this story wasn't an easy one.... I’m really, really grateful that you did 💖 Thank you for bearing witness. Thank you for being kind, and curious, and thorough, and honest. Just, thank you. 📚😭” Some especially nice AKOMP blurbs from folks I knew less well included:

    “This book is an act of radical empathy through which the author—and, vicariously, the reader—enters intimately into a life that would otherwise be unintelligible.” – Anne Fadiman, author of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down

    ​“To pay great attention and devote steady care to the perspective of another is, in itself, almost miraculous—especially when the Other has been cast as mad and dangerous.[Sandy] Allen has brought forward [his] uncle’s life, rendering in exquisite detail what his experiences as a stigmatized, struggling man allowed him to see. This is a truly original piece of work. I urge you to read it.” – Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, author of Random Family

    “A book of many strange and often oddly beautiful pieces that together combine into a story that will make you tremble. [AKOMP] is a resurrection of sorts, a profound retrieval of a life from beyond the veil with which so many of us obscure the realities of illness and family, loneliness and intimacy.”– Jeff Sharlet, author of The Family

    ​Visit this site for more about AKOMP. See the bottom of this page for a ton of praise from AKOMP’s readers … professionals, patients, their families — amongst other messages fans have sent me …

Podcast & Radio Appearances

Very selected … For many others, see for example … Note: Those from pre-2021 feature my voice pre-Testosterone. Now I sound like a guy.

See also: My stories for This American Life (first, second) and 99% Invisible (first, second).