Category: 2020 Contest Winners

[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] “My medication is mixing weird with my marijuana.” “Turn right at that billboard. GPS woman with British accent says in 500 feet turn right.” “Drive into it. I want in that billboard.” “I like the black stars.” “What are you… Continue reading White Box 
Barbara Cameron

Winner, Howard Frank Mosher Prize for Short Fiction

[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] Shane Dugan reads Irish whenever he can, although he is no good at it. Is fearr Gaeilge briste, ná Béarla clíste / Broken Irish is better than clever English. He read a lot of things, poetry and prose, truth and… Continue reading Reading in Northern Ireland
Nick Miller

Runner-Up, Howard Frank Mosher Short Fiction Prize

[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] There is a moment when my car rounds the corner at our subdivision, when I glide past the cool blue community swimming pool and onto Mira Vista Street—a quiet cul de sac in southern California, with a name that means… Continue reading An Embarrassment of Riches
Wendy Fontaine

Winner, Creative Nonfiction Prize

[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] When we got back to the apartment, I was still buzzing with the beat of Shakira, the novelty of dancing late into the night at a Spanish club. But David turned to me, and he said, “I saw how you… Continue reading In Love with the World
Suzanne Roberts

Runner-Up, Creative Nonfiction Prize

[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] in memory of Don Larsen (1929-2020) The thing about perfection is how nobody sees it coming except those destined for disappointment. A journeyman hurler, brush cut and big ears, whose teammates call him Gooney Bird, goes out-and-out untouchable one fall… Continue reading The Thing About Perfection
Don Colburn

Winner, Ruth Stone Poetry Prize

[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] When I was thirteen, I had a friend named Carly who was obsessed with pills—she took supplements, like echinacea, obsessively, counting them out, holding them in her hand. She liked the way the light cascaded off their slippery backs, something… Continue reading The Bloom’s Beauty Is Insistence
Tobias Wray

Runner-Up, Ruth Stone Poetry Prize

[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] Fair is foul, and foul is fair. —Shakespeare, Macbeth   After school, Blanca takes me to the Sonic across the street for half-price happy-hour limeades to apologize for making me almost-late for the history final. I love their limeade—the fizz stinging my… Continue reading Brief Candle 
Jenna Wengler

Overall Winner, Katherine Paterson Prize for Young Adult Literature

[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] “Gumbucket!” the conductor called. Caleb jolted awake. He’d been leaning against the window of the train car, dreaming of a milky-eyed old man beckoning to him with a toothless smile and a paintbrush. Grandpa had better not be anything like… Continue reading The Midnight Owl of Gumbucket Hill
Noah Weisz

First-Place, Katherine Paterson Prize, Middle Grade Fiction

[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”]                     For Chuck—                     who ALWAYS goes outside!   SPRING Tippy-tap. Tappy-tip. Drip! Drop! Drap!That’s the sound the rain made on the roof. Raz sat at the window watching waves of water falling from the dreary sky. A soggy salamander crawled out… Continue reading We CAN’T Go Outside! 
Sean McCollum

First-Place, Katherine Paterson Prize, Picture Book

[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] After Bruce Weigl   “I don’t think of all the misery, but of the beauty that still remains.” — Anne Frank   Or: the white cottage next door, the one with the boy. The blossom of the first bomb one… Continue reading Melody for Light 
Katherine Vandermel

Overall Winner, International Young Writers Prize

[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] in the first grade i remember hanging my head low when my umma introduced herself   as yoojin. i remember feeling so grateful that my name was not korean, for i had shed   that name in skins. i’d already… Continue reading dear franny choi 
Esther Kim

Honorable Mention, International Young Writers Prize, Poetry

[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] In your local 7-Eleven, follow the unearthly scent of cologne. He’ll be sitting in a freezer box,   venting to the frozen dinners about how he resembles “dope with venom entailed.”   Proceed with caution. At first, he won’t look… Continue reading to hell with the Manic Pixie Dream Girl:
my love letter to Susan Vance 
Sylvia Nicholas-Patterson

Honorable Mention, International Young Writers Prize, Poetry

[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] Mother, in her slight accent, calls olives “Oliver.” She loves Oliver, brine salty in her mouth. Almost twenty-five years in America and she cannot differentiate between a man and a fruit, but what is the difference, really? Both are green,… Continue reading Zodiac Year of the Lamb 
Grace Wang

Honorable Mention, International Young Writers Prize, Poetry

[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] Lately I’ve imagined prettier iterations of my body turning cold: gleaming pearlescent, floating quietly towards the shoreline. Kneeled before a bird’s nest, cheekbones dressed with blood. One night, I found myself lovelier than ever, torn to pieces all over the… Continue reading July, 1913 
Annie Cao

Honorable Mention, International Young Writers Prize, Poetry

[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”]                     [After Zoe Leonard]   I want a man who is kind for the sake of communism, I want the neighbor’s dog to pee in rain gutters and storm drains, I want the New York Times editor to turn into falcon-goat… Continue reading I Want a Brand-New Precedent: 
Elizabeth Shorkey

Honorable Mention, International Young Writers Prize, Poetry

[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] The ground had already baked to a deep, sunburnt orange. Grains of dust lingered in the air, and I stared at the remains of my family’s farm. From the hill, I could see the empty pastures where our livestock used to reside,… Continue reading Abiogenesis 
Katherine Wong

Honorable Mention, International Young Writers Prize, Fiction

[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”]                     “If he but fail to recognize himself, a long life he may have.” – Ovid’s Metamorphoses Imagine! If we think of ourselves divided into separate entities of existence from the time we are born until we draw our last breath,… Continue reading The Narcissist’s Cure for Aging 
Sydney Alexander

Honorable Mention, International Young Writers Prize, Fiction

[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] Baby sits in the corner, rag doll in hand. Mother begs the man gripping her hair like a leash to please, at least take this to another room, the baby is watching. Baby clutches the doll close. Black yarn is… Continue reading Theory of Mind 
Onassa Sun

Honorable Mention, International Young Writers Prize, Fiction

[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] Disclaimer: As I write this essay, attempting to embody rebellion and denounce society, I must also recognize that by writing this essay I am only fulfilling my predetermined role in society—this is a scheduled epiphany.   I am a high… Continue reading Scheduled Epiphany 
Samantha Haviland

Honorable Mention, International Young Writers Prize, Nonfiction

[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”] “A boy salutes as he has learned in the school, and cries umfundisi. He waits for no response, but turns away and gives the queer tremulous call, to no person at all, but to the air. He turns away and… Continue reading The White Man 
Anya Shukla

Honorable Mention, International Young Writers Prize, Nonfiction

[av_hr class=’custom’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-fat’ custom_width=’100%’ custom_border_color=’#8f2f66′ custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’no’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ admin_preview_bg=”]                     —after Ocean Vuong   1981’s April. Sweats pearled the shades of dawn. Sunlight inked into your clothes. How everything stilled in the carving heat. You both were young and had numbered days to count. You both worked as factory laborers… Continue reading There is a name for our present tense 
Duy Quang Mai

Honorable Mention, International Young Writers Prize, Nonfiction