Writing Contest Winners
Click each title to download the work in PDF format.
2025
Poetry
- First Prize, “Variation” by James Winn
- Second Prize, “When the Morning Chooses” by Sarah LaGrave
Short Story
- First Prize, “The Sound of War” by Ian Moore
- Second Prize, “The House That Remembered” by Amber Manison
2024
Poetry
- First Prize, “The sparrows” by Gillian Copeland
- Second Prize, “Tender” by Kathlyne Cook
Short Story
- First Prize, “Playing House” by Dionne White
- Second Prize, “Celina” by Zander Majors
2023
Poetry
- First Prize, “six of five” by Jules Holzbauer
- Second Prize, “Mourning Coffee” by Jay Newfield
Short Story
- First Prize, “The River Keeps Healing” by Evelyn Larson
- Second Prize, “The Butterfly Dancer” by Zander Majors
2022
Poetry
- First Place: "Cottonwood" by Sophia Alvarez
- Second Place: "I close my eyes and dream" by Markeesha Dean
Short Story
- First Place: "Ephemeral Lilies" by Evelyn Larson
- Second Place: "Nightmare" by Alexa Falleur
2021
Poetry
- First Place: "Domestic Violence" by Jessica Walter
Short Story
- First Place: "Your Door was Open" by Sam Cooper
2019
Poetry
- First Place: "The Creek" by Paighton Johnson
- Second Place: "Blue" by Anna Graves
Short Story
- First Place: "The Fight Within" by Anna Graves
- Second Place: "Personal Narrative" by Taylor Sturtevant
2018
Poetry
- First Place: "A Disturbing Contribution" by Martin Wind
- Second Place: "My Journey as Hawk" by Colleen Cooper
Short Story
- First Place: "The Beginning" by Amanda Bueno
2017
Poetry
- First Place: "Trouble They Say" by Dawn Martin-Young
- Second Place: "The Only Boy in New York" by Laura Grace Grafham Knapp
Short Story
- First Place: "1985" by Erik Dewey
- Second Place: "Home is Where the Heart is" by Caitlin Campbell
2016
Poetry
- First Place: "Western Wisdom" by Hannah McCage
- Second Place: "The Defeatist" by Jamie Kirby
Short Story
- First Place: "Lord Avalon's Book" by Tara Rittler
- Second Place: "The Death of a Gun" by Raymond P. Akin III
2015
Poetry
- First Place: "The Snowbird" by Yan Xu
- Second Place: "Holiday Card" by Tamara Keane
- Third Place: "For T and Her Mother" by Hanna Al-Jibouri
Short Story
- First Place: "Simulacra and Manifestation" - John Dixon
- Second Place: "Lost" by Lacey Haynie
- Third Place: "The Ancients" by Jason Hart
2014
Poetry
- First Place: “1x1 Lego” by Ambra King
- Second Place: “No Home” by Hanna Al-Jibouri
- Third Place: “Dear Future Self” by Daniel Dunlap
Short Story
- First Place: “A Fair” by Matthew Pascucci
- Second Place: “The Sun is Gone/But I Have a Light” by John Gabriel
- Third Place: “A Plate of Eggs” by Cynthia DePalma
2013
Poetry
- First Place –“Echoes” by Janie Schatz
- Second Place –“Life Without End” by Yvette Wiley
- Third Place – “Moments” by Alexandria Trahan
Short Story
- First Place – “Christmas Morning” by Sabrina Hall
- Second Place – “But You Don’t See Me” by Alysha Glasser
- Third Place – “Elise” by Phoenix Williams
2012
Poetry
- First Place – "Untitled" by Dionne White
- Second Place – "Technology: A Puppeteer" by Tabitha Fleming
Short Story
- First Place – "The Mary Purse" by Marian McCarthy
- Second Place – "An Ordinary Day" by Cliff A. Aldridge
2011
Poetry
- First Place – "November" by Kim Meigs
- Second Place – "108 S-t-i-t-c-h-e-s" by Willard Jacob Cornwell
Short Story
- First Place – "The Bet's to You" by Aaron Kyle Jarman
- Second Place – "Las Tres Maldiciones de Rick Castillo" by Joey DeLeon
2010
Poetry
- First Place – "Dashes to Dashes, Rust to Rust" by Willard Jacob Cornwell
- Second Place – "Goddess" by Confidence Omenai
- Third Place – "Small-town Fair" by Chad Little
Short Story
- First Place – "Mystique" by JL Greer
- Second Place – "Jack the Dreamwalker" by Jonathan Beck
2009
Poetry
- First Place – "Sanctuary" by Colleen Reyes
- Second Place – "Blue S(k)in" by Sterling Ellsworth
Short Story
- First Place – "To Forget" by Chantal Walker
- Second Place – "Children Don't Get Headaches" by Rebecca Emmons
2008
Undergraduate Poetry
- First Place – “Red Wing Blackbird” by Marie Peterson
- Second Place – “Weathered Beauty” by Jana Bendinelli
Undergraduate Short Story
- First Place – “Tainted Blood” by Stephanie White
- Second Place – “Cherry Pie” by Charles Joseph Rodriguez
Graduate Poetry
- First Place – “I Am From . . .” by Lori E. Weatherholtz
2007
Undergraduate Poetry
- First Place: “I’m a Fat Girl” by Tanisha Alexander
- Second Place: “Coyote” by Michael Champlin
Undergraduate Short Story
- First Place: “Spirits in the Dark” by Stephanie White
- Second Place: “The Cow” by Charles Rodriguez
Graduate Short Story
- First Place: “Talla the Dog” by Brian Cross
- Second Place: “Drunk Indun” by Trygve Jorgensen