In celebration of their eleventh birthday, the mother orders her twins Sunday suits from the Sears and Roebuck, matching breech pants, double-breasted sailor coats with yellow neckties.
Category: 2016 Contest Winners
A Good Medicine
The Slide
by Jennifer Hasty
Runner Up, Howard Frank Mosher Short Fiction Prize
I’m sorry your study was ruined,” he said. “But I think those rats gave you an answer after all. Maybe not what you were looking for.
Edna, With Her Mouth
by Katherine Schaefer
First Place, Creative Nonfiction Prize
Edna’s voice resembled nothing so much as what you’d hear coming from a poultry barn full of caged white turkeys: that loud, shrieking up-and-down gobbling that almost makes you want to scream, yourself.
Adventure Counselor
by Jocelyn Edelstein
Runner Up, Creative Nonfiction Prize
“Fuuuuuuck!” I scream – three – possibly four times – as I hurtle through air, as my innocent 14-year-old campers giggle until they can’t stand, as the honest wind tells my body a story of speed and force and falling.
All the Pieces Came Together
by Chris J. Rice
Runner Up, Creative Nonfiction Prize
My identity as fractured as my vision, I erected walls around me. Hard walls. Flat walls. Walls I made and maintained…I’d already accepted my fate.
Little World / After a Series of Rejections
by Sawnie Morris
First Place, Ruth Stone Poetry Prize
You can safely e merge to sit with magenta tulips ,
orange day lilies shouting
Carol Amber
by Kate Kingston
Runner Up, Ruth Stone Poetry Prize
She pours us tea, one that claims
to detoxify, to soothe the throat. Honey
dissolves in the agitated swirl
Terrorists
by Donald Levering
Runner Up, Ruth Stone Poetry Prize
God don’t let that be
my bombshell daughter naked
in a sleeping bag on a public bench
Oprah, Maslow, and Me
by Amy Emm
Overall First Place, Katherine Paterson Prize for Young Adult and Children’s Literature
We usually go for the middling neighborhoods. We don’t want curving brick driveways, brass knockers, tall clumps of waving grasses, gates, cameras. Nope – we want something riiiiight in the middle.
A Proud Family of Sneezers
by Sandra Nickel
Picture Book Winner, Katherine Paterson Prize for Young Adult and Children’s Literature
When the doctor arrived, she examined Snookie’s nose inside and out. She poked and pinched and prodded, and finally declared, “There’s nothing wrong with this little girl.
The Gifts of Ratoncito Pérez
by Joe Baillargeon
Middle-Grade Winner, Katherine Paterson Prize for Young Adult and Children’s Literature
I stop and drop my bike on the ground, and the young woman’s head appears in the back window. My father’s head pops up too, and then I see a hand reach up, an open hand patting the window, as if asking me to wait.
The Angel Age
by Val Howlett
Young Adult Winner, Katherine Paterson Prize for Young Adult and Children’s Literature
The backstage lights are off. The actors are in shadow, lit only by the faint glow of the house lights onstage. You tunnel around them, trying to keep up with Dani Aguilar, but Cinderella has somehow gotten ahead of you…