1st place - $250
2nd place - $100
3rd place - $50
1st place: “Working or Hardly Working,” Jayden Norman (Swain County High School)
2nd place: “The Store that Doesn’t Exist,” Kat Rodrigué (Martin L. Nesbitt Jr. Nesbitt Discovery Academy)
3rd place: "Untitled," Lila Needham (Millbrook High School)
Finalists:
Judged by WCU English Studies faculty.
1st place - $250
2nd place - $100
3rd place - $50
1st place: "Roots," Akshara Gudipati (Providence High School)
2nd place: "Girlhood," Eli Cameron Jones (Longleaf School of the Arts)
3rd place: "Migrant Student," Jose Arevalo (Willow Spring High School)
Finalists:
Judged by WCU English Studies faculty.
1st place - $250
2nd place - $100
3rd place - $50
1st place: “Galileo’s Suicide Note,” Ava Primak (Apex Friendship High)
2nd place: “dormancy,” Molly Young (Providence High School)
3rd place: “what was learned while eavesdropping on a murder of crows,” Angela Laboy (Longleaf School of the Arts)
Finalists:
Judged by WCU English Studies faculty
Winner - $250
Runner-up - $100
Winner: "broken bottle," Noble Keller
Judge's note: I appreciate the economy of language, the intensity of the situation presented in the opening two lines, the use of rhyme and wordplay. I can see the work of the poet's ear.
Runner-up: "Ode to a Mutt," Austin Knepper
Judge's note: "You can hear lies; smell my rot"--this line and many others are so evocative and far beyond cliche. The ending hits.
Judged by Amy Alvarez, author of the poetry collection Makeshift Altar (2024) and the co-editor of Essential Voices: A COVID-19 Anthology (2023).
Winner - $250
Runner-up - $100
Winner: “Sister-Fiddle,” Lillie Wieder
Judge's note: This is a striking and haunting story about sisters and betrayal. The energetic, lyrical prose immediately drew me in and carried me through this dark, surprising, and delightfully weird fairytale.
Runner-up: “A Time Before The Once,” Caroline Elias
Judge's note: This story offers a feminist retelling of the traditional Snow White fairytale. In this unique version, the writer imagines the life of Snow White’s mother—a victim of domestic violence—and shares her story.
Finalists:
Judged by Carter Sickels, author of the novel The Prettiest Star, winner of the 2021 Southern Book Prize and the Weatherford Award, and The Evening Hour, which was adapted into a feature film by the same name in 2020.
Winner - $250
Runner-up - $100
Winner: "Butterfly," Alana McLaughlin
Judge's note: Covering an impressive emotional and intellectual range, this essay also managed to surprise me at nearly every turn, both in language and focus. A delight to read, but also a read that made me think.
Runner-up: "The Orange Tree," Avery Luft
Judge's note: A studied look at place, this narrative essay paints an aching and gorgeous picture of childhood while also revealing how loss is so often present in our care for what remains. This one will stay with me for a long time.
Finalists:
Judged by Sarah Viren, contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine and author of two books of narrative nonfiction: To Name the Bigger Lie (2023) and Mine (2018).
Winner - $250
Runner-up - $100
Winner: "Dying Business," Hannah McLeod
Judge's note: "Dying Business" is a darkly comic story full of miscalculations and misunderstandings about the ways normal flawed people show love for one another. Full of surprising moments and hard-won tenderness, McLeod weaves a highly satisfying narrative.
Runner-up: "Stacey," Aimee Kling
Judge's note: In "Stacey," the reader is treated to a bracing and structurally adventurous story that does quite a lot in a few pages. Rather than aim for salaciousness, this work lends a humanity to the protagonist while maintaining a sure-handed pace.
Finalists:
Judged by Maurice Carlos Ruffin, author of two novels--American Daughters (2024) and We Cast a Shadow (2019)--and the New York Times Editor’s Choice short story collection The Ones Who Don't Say They Love You (2021).
Winner - $250
Runner-up - $100
Winner: "Rising," Elizabeth Fisher
Judge's note: The pantoum form serves this poem well, the repetition elevating the thoughtful, almost mantra-like aspects. The poem gives a sense of slowly spiraling upwards, an ascension effectively reverberated in the title.
Runner-up: "A Hollow Tree," Daniel Alcocella
Judges note: This poem has a haunting, fable-like quality that asked me to reread it again and again. Invocative of the oral tradition of poetry/storytelling in a way that is very difficult to capture on the page, but this poem accomplishes that excellently.
Finalists:
“The Attack of Culicidae,” Faith Brooks
"If You Sit Quietly Beside the Creek," Johnny Holloway
"My uterus is attacking me," Hannah McLeod
"
Slant,"
Aimee Kling
Judged by Ariel Francisco, author of All the Places We Love Have Been Left in Ruins (2024), Under Capitalism If Your Head Aches They Just Yank Off Your Head (2022), A Sinking Ship is Still a Ship (2020), and All My Heroes Are Broke (2017).
Winner - $250
Runner-up - $100
Winner: "Falling: A Lyrical Memoir," Braulio Fonseca
Judge's note: This essay is fierce, furious, and confoundingly creative. It reads like a modern Odyssey, a human in search of himself. The words read as if falling through the mind. The details are rendered not just through the language but through the use of style and movement on the page. Every part of this essay was brilliant.
Runner-up: "The House of Eyes," Morgan Winstead
Judge's note: This is a sparse and keenly observed essay. There is something in it of a Rose for Miss Emily. The story of an outsider, watching a neighbor, never knowing but only guessing and what lies within. The beauty of this essay is in its withholdings, lack of editorializing, and specific details. It's the story of a commonplace tragedy, gently told. I loved reading it.
Finalists: .
"July 3, 2009,"
Merritt Newman-Shaw
Judged by Lyz Lenz, author of the nonfiction books This American Ex Wife (2024), Belabored (2020), and God Land(2021), as well as the newsletter Men Yell At Me, where she explores the intersection of politics and our bodies in red state America.