2022 Winners and Runners-up
Short Story Category:
Bae Di – Winner “Her Own Kind”
Nick Rees Gardner – Runner Up “Digging”
Creative Nonfiction Category:
N.R. Robinson - Winner “Visiting Mama”
Anisse Gross – Runner Up “Dear Methheads”
Poetry Category:
Gaia Rajan - Winner “Killing It”
Jenny Keto – Runner Up “The Reason I Keep My Questions Between Dark and Dark”
Short Story by a Public High School Student Category:
Amiyuh Tobias – Winner “Poems from Internet Therapy Collection”
Logan Meredith – Runner Up “It Lives There”
Beyond the Bars Category:
CJ -Winner “Seed in the Dirt”
John Church – Runner Up “When I Weep”
2021 Winners and Runners-up
Short Story Category:
D.P. Jannerson – Winner “Charity”
C.A. Munn – Runner Up “The Elephant’s Foot”
Creative Nonfiction Category:
Ella Latham - Winner “Chronicle of My Blood-Summer”
Maria Carrera – Runner Up “Night Music”
Poetry Category:
Benjamin Morris - Winner “The Dream of Light”
Andy Young – Runner Up “Villanelle of Her Absence”
Nicole Eiden – Runner Up “Embodiment”
Short Story by a Public High School Student Category:
Jessica Wang – Winner “Snake-people”
Beyond the Bars Category:
Mason Hyde -Winner “This Kid”
Mason Dufrene – Runner Up “Destiny”
2020 Winners and Runners-Up
Short Story Category:
Katie Devine – Winner “The Extraction”
Titus Chalk – Runner-Up “This body also dances”
Creative Nonfiction Category:
Constance Adler – Winner “Look”
R. Tiara Malone – Runner-Up “Mikey Go Boom!”
Poetry Category:
Elizabeth Gross – Winner “Ghazal at the end of the world”
Andy Young – Runner-Up “My Mother’s Skull Is Opened for the First Time”
Short Story by a Public High School Student Category:
Deja Robinson – Winner “XoXo, Zion”
Percy Unger – Runner-Up “Breaking”
Beyond the Bars Category:
RBE – Winner “Deep Down”
GBS – Runner-Up “Pain From the Streets”
2019 Winners and Runners-Up
Short Story Category:
Sheila Arndt – Winner “Cherchez la Femme”
Susan Finch – Runner-Up “That Thing With Feathers”
Creative Nonfiction Category:
Benjamin Aleshire – Winner “Love for Sale”
Nick Robinson – Runner-Up “Cherall”
Poetry Category:
Kate Leland – Winner “All the Men Who Own My Underwear”
Yoruba Baltrip-Coleman – Runner-Up “Pressing Day”
Short Story by a Public High School Student Category:
Nichole Cloke – Winner “With Hindsight In Mind”
Torey Bovie – Runner-Up “Cicada”
Beyond the Bars Category:
Connor Sanders - Winner “Down Here”
Griffin Batiste Tadoe - Runner-Up "Problem Child"
2018 Winners and Runners-Up
Short Story Category:
Zeke Perkins – Winner “Utica”
Claire Jentsch – Runner-Up “Cool Air”
Creative Nonfiction Category:
Jennifer Steil – Winner “The Braille Machine”
Jennifer Horne – Runner-Up “‘I Am Sane’; The Life of Sara Mayfield”
Poetry Category:
Lana K. W. Austin – Winner “Interviewing Li Lu”
Kelly Anderson – Runner-Up “A Greater Distance”
Short Story by a Public High School Student Category:
Raven Little - Winner “Sprout”
Gabrielle Marullo – Runner-Up “Saint Abbi”
Beyond the Bars Category:
Jesus Mendez – Winner “Window”
Jesus Mendez – Runner-Up “Heart Memories”