Contest Archive

2025 Winners

Nonfiction/Memoir
1st place: Jake Clemens, "Dry Boat"
2nd place: Rachel McKinley, "Entomophobia"
3rd place: Helena Fagan, "Painting Under the Anger"

2024 Winners

Poetry
1st place: Terry Johnson, "Fusion"
2nd place: Tricia Elliott, "Regaled"
3rd place: Christy Roe, "Returning to the Island, I Run"

Children's Literature
1st place: Michael Shiffer, "Secrets"
2nd place: Staci Cox, "Aspen Spies"
3rd place: Grace Ward, "A Letter for Eva"

Fiction
1st place: Katrina Stonoff, "East of Jesus"
2nd place: Jill Marcotte, "The Bright"
3rd place: Dean Konopasek, "A Little Farther Out"

Nonfiction/Memoir
1st place: Jaclyn Bergamino, "To My Husband, on Navigating a Pandemic after the NICU"
2nd place: Katrina Stonoff, "Home"
3rd place: Katrina Stonoff, "Loss"

2023 Winners

Poetry
1st place: Terry Johnson, "Astronomy"
2nd place: Kelly Aurora Beltane, "Asymptote"
3rd place: Corinne Smith, "Parenthood"

Children's Literature
1st place: Staci Cox, "Luna Loves the Moon"
2nd place: Kathy Hocker, "We Are Light, Too"
3rd place: Staci Cox, "A-B-Sea: Alaskan Animals from A to Z"

Fiction
1st place: Nick Jans, "Whale Song"
2nd place: Tricia DePue, "Pictures from the Paper Bag"
3rd place: Mitch Sidebottom, "The Woes of a Language Model"

Non-fiction
1st place: Alex Otto, "What to Talk About When My Ex Messages Me After Twenty Years"
2nd place: Jill Bedell, "Return of the Sun"
3rd place: Valerie Van Brocklin, "Blind Redemption"

2022 Winners

Poetry
1st place: Helena Fagan, "Song of Miriam"
2nd place: Lindsay Belle Sobolik, "The Worst Martini"
3rd place: Jill Marcotte, "Bookish Drabble"

Children's Literature
1st place: Stefanie Tatlias, "The Whale and His Boy"
2nd place: Christian Shane, "Steelhead Survivor"
3rd place: Richard Goldstein, "The Storm Child"

Fiction
1st place: Lesley Hammer, "It's Over"
2nd place: Richard Goldstein, "In the Hallway"
3rd place: Cynthia Bethune, "The Rowan Tree"

Non-fiction
1st place: Richard Goldstein, "Cross Town Buses"
2nd place: Jill Morgan, "Losing Dixie"
3rd place: Georgeie Reynolds, "September in Fairbanks"

2021 Winners

Poetry
1st place: Margaret Adsit, "Pomegranate"
2nd place: Denise Olmstead, "Nigh Sounds"
3rd place: Michael Mitchell, "Forecast"

Fiction
1st place: Jill Marcotte, "Spark and Shadow"
2nd place: Jaclyn Bergamino, "Cassiopeia"
3rd place: Don Neal, "To Kill a Raven"

Non-fiction
1st place: Alex Otto, "Laborious"
2nd place: Kevin Randall, "Life Lessons"
3rd place: Logan Lott, "Jacob"

Children's Literature
1st place: Logan Lott, "Dawn of the Disconnected"
2nd place: Carla Sabotta, "Riding a Space Elevator"
3rd place: Richard Goldstein, "On Thin Ice"

2020 Winners

Fiction
1st place: Kellie Doherty, "Curling Vines & Crimson"
2nd place: Alex Otto, "Unbuilding"
3rd place: Jill Marcote, "Anathema"

Nonfiction/Memoir
1st place: Alexandra Otto, "No Words"
2nd place: Barbara Johnson, "Goodbye Dolly"
3rd place: Don Neal, "Pockets"

Children's Literature
1st place: Kirsten Randall, "Kid Smarts Detective Agency"
2nd place: Christian Shane, excerpt from "Salmon Survivor"
3rd place Kenni Linden, "Hank the Crabby Unicorn"
Honorable Mention: Art Carpenter, "Lily's Sojourn"

Poetry
1st place: Kenni Linden, "Salmon Berries and Saag Aloo"
2nd place: MoHagani Magnetek, "for colored ladies who considered pull-tabs with their last two dollars: An ode to Ntozake Shange and Johnnie Taylor...a choreopoem"
3rd place: Tiffany Creed, "Dinner Dinner"

2019 Winners

Poetry
1st place: Kenni Psenak Linden, "Perennial"
2nd place: Steven Martin, "Revelation"
3rd place: Tamara Holman, "My Big Brother's Shadow"