FICTION
AWARD: "In the Red" by Lisa Isaac
Lisa Isaac writes from her lakeside central Florida cottage where she lives with her wife and a smattering of entitled pets. Between working and writing, she tends a wild but flower-full garden. She studied fiction at Florida State University and the University of Colorado at Boulder.
HONORABLE MENTION: "Red Yucca" by Emilee Prado
Emilee Prado is a fiction writer and essayist whose work appears in Cincinnati Review, Wigleaf, Fractured Lit, and elsewhere. Emilee was raised in a working-class family. She has lived in Asia and South America and currently resides in Tucson, Arizona. Find out more at emileepradoauthor.com or on social media: @_emilee_prado_.
CREATIVE NONFICTION:
AWARD: "Sh'mot (Names) / Exodus (The Way Out)" by Hailee Nielsen
Hailee Nielsen grew up in rural Michigan and lives in Ann Arbor with their two cats. Their work has previously appeared in Smokelong Quarterly, and in the 2020 Issue of Bacopa Literary Review.
HONORABLE MENTION: "Portrait and Punctum" by Sue Hann
Sue Hann's debut memoir in essays is forthcoming with Neem Tree Press. You can find her at suehannwrites.com and on Instagram @SueHannwrites.
HUMOR
AWARD: "Kringle" by Mary Liza Hartong
Mary Liza Hartong lives and writes in her hometown of Nashville, Tennessee. She's a Darmouth grad, a Fulbright Scholar, and a proud aunt. Her first novel is forthcoming from William Morrow in 2024.
HONORABLE MENTION: "Curly" by Roberta Anthes
Roberta J. Anthes is a retired college English teacher and track coach, but her most recent occupation has been caregiver to her elderly mom. She's had pieces published in The Southern California Review, Writer's Digest Show Us Your Shorts, and Women on Writing.
FORMAL POETRY
AWARD: "Burning Haibun At the Creek" by Haley Winans
Haley Winans is a garden-lover and bunny mom from Annapolis, Maryland. She has poetry published in Slipstream, The Shore Poetry, and elsewhere. She's in the University of Memphis MFA Creative Writing program. She's a founding co-editor of Beaver Magazine. During undergrad, she studied Environmental Studies and Creative Writing, with a focus on environmental justice, sustainable agriculture, and poetry.
HONORABLE MENTION: "Two faced Abecedarian" by Matthew J. Spireng
Matthew J. Spireng's 2019 Sinclair Poetry Prize-winning book Good Work was publishing in 2020 by Evening Street Press. An 11-time Pushcart Prize nominee, he is also author of the full-length poetry books What Focus Is and Out of Body, winner of the 2004 Bluestem Poetry Award, and five chapbooks.
FREE VERSE POETRY
AWARD: "st0p bl0cking the sun (car0usel)" by August Reynolds
August Reynolds is a triple English major at Virginia tech whose work has appeared in a wide variety of journals over the years. He currently resides in Blacksburg, VA and shares his home with two cute but quite dumb cats.
HONORABLE MENTION: "How to sing in the electric chair" by Martins Deep
Martins Deep (he/him) is a poet of Urhobo descent, a Taurus, photographer, digital artist, & currently an undergraduate student of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. He says hi @martinsdeep1.
VISUAL POETRY
AWARD: "Snow" by Chingshun J. Sheu
Chingshun J. Sheu is Assistant Professor of Applied English at Ming Chuan University in Taoyuan, Taiwan. He's also Taiwan's premier Anglophone film critic, indexed on Rotten Tomatoes at CJ Sheu. Tweet at him @cj_sheu.
HONORABLE MENTION: "1040A" by Sara Adams
Sara Adams' chapbooks include Poems for Ivan (Porkbelly Press), Western Diseases (dancing girl press), Think Like a B (Trump erasure poems; SOd press; free to download!), and six Ghost City Press Summer Series Micro-chaps (also free to download). Check out more of Sara's work, including chapbook links, at kartoshkaaaaa.com.
~Thank you to everyone who submitted to this year's contest. Stay tuned for our upcoming journal release reading!~
