Writing Awards 53
Janine Kovac of Oakland, California for “Dancing on the Blade”
Janine Kovac is the author of the memoir Spinning: Choreography for Coming Home, which was a semifinalist for Publishers Weekly’s BookLife Prize and a winner of the National Indie Excellence Awards. She is an alumna of Hedgebrook and a MacDowell Fellow. Her fiction is fiscally sponsored by Fractured Atlas and supported through a “Courage to Writer/Writer of Note” grant from the deGroot Foundation. Read more at janinekovac.com. She lives in Oakland with her family.
A. E. Wynter of St. Paul, Minnesota for “To the protesters on Vandalia”
A. E. Wynter is a Black, Jamaican-descended writer born and raised in New York. She was a fiction fellow in the 2021-2022 Loft Mentor Series and her in-progress novel, Far Cry From A Woman, was a finalist in the 2021 Miami Fellowship for Emerging Writers. Wynter’s fiction has appeared in Tulip Tree Press and her poetry is forthcoming in West Trade Review. She has received grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board and currently lives in St. Paul, MN.
Ellen Pauley Goff of New York City for “Baptism”
Ellen Pauley Goff (she/hers) is a graduate from The University of Chicago. Her adult short fiction can be found in the Indiana Review, Hunger Mountain, and Glimmer Train. Her writing has won VCFA’s Katherine Paterson Prize for Young Adult & Children’s Writing, and she is also the inaugural recipient of SCBWI’s A. Orr Fantasy Grant for speculative fiction. Ellen was born and raised in Kentucky, and now lives and works in New York City.
Sean W. Murphy of Toas, New Mexico for “Crackup”
Sean W. Murphy, a 2018 NEA Creative Writing Fellow, is author of the nonfiction One Bird, One Stone and three novels with Bantam-Dell, including The Time of New Weather and The Hope Valley Hubcap King. He won the 2017 Faulkner Wisdom Award and Southern Indiana University’s 2019 Mary Mohr prize. www.murphyzen.com
— FINALISTS —
POETRY
Sarah Bokich
Portland, Oregon
“Daughter”
Partridge Boswell
Woodstock, Vermont
“Stick Up”
Lina Buividaviciute
Vilnius, Lithuania
“Boogeyman”
Dale Cottingham
Edmond, Oklahoma
“Passing Through”
Deborah DeNicola
Margate, Florida
“Miracle at Fatima”
Katherine Gaffney
Petal, Mississippi
“Abecedarian for My Mother’s Grief”
Rozanne Gold
Brooklyn, New York
“Kitchen Work”
Linda Flaherty Haltmaier
Beverly, Massachusetts
“A Visitation Over Dessert”
Nikita Ladd
Brooklyn, New York
“the hospital, the blue buds, and all the rest”
Tanya McIntyre
Stanstead, Quebec
“Ebony Jewelwing”
W. Kent Olson
Jackson, New Hampshire
“Summary Judgment”
Zaira Pirzada
Glen Head, New York
“Only in the day”
Ivy Raff
Detroit, Michigan
“In Memory of Thwaites Glacier”
John Simonds
Honolulu, Hawaii
“Gathering of the Waters”
Kelli Simpson
Norman, Oklahoma
“The Coyote and the Peacock”
Kathleen Spivack
Watertown, Massachusetts
“There Is A Word Or Several, Must Be”
Allen Tullos
Decatur, Georgia
“Too Ra Loo Ra Loo Ral”
Tanya Tuzeo
Centerport, New York
“my brother’s grenade”
Anthony Warnke
Seattle, Washington
“Accumulation”
Andre Wilson
Hercules, California
“Stolen Photo”
FICTION
Lesley Bannatyne
Somerville, Massachusetts
“The Boy in the Boat”
Tim Bascom
Topeka, Kansas
“Chipoko Arts, Ltd.”
Amy Branson
Olney, Maryland
“A Soft Place to Land”
Michael Campagnoli
Rockland, Maine
“The Eve of All Saints”
Emily Davis
Columbia, South Carolina
“Samsara as Observed by a Congregation of Alligators”
Suzi Ehtesham-Zadeh
Woodstock, Georgia
“Ghabeleh Hamleh”
Rebecca Godwin
Pawleys Island, South Carolina
“Saved”
Lisa Gornick
New York, New York
“Till the Cows Come Home”
Darryl Halbrooks
Richmond, Kentucky
“Spaghettified”
Deirdre Jacobson
New York, New York
“The Breaker’s Whole Thing”
B Kapilani
Valley Center, California
“Sweat Lodge: Vlhtipo Alaksha“
John Kaufmann
Dobbs Ferry, New York
“Shrapnel”
Haley Kennedy
Incline Village, Nevada
“Shapeless”
Cathy Kodra
Knoxville, Tennessee
“Naming Them”
John Lavelle
Lockport, New York
“The Double Universe Hypothesis”
Joshua Levy
Montreal, Quebec
“The Edge of Portugal”
Z. Hanna Mahon
Washington, DC
“A Little to the Left”
Sue Mell
Flushing, New York
“Photo Finish: 1986 and 1999“
Amanda O’Callaghan
Brisbane, Australia
“Things”
James Reid
Santa Fe, New Mexico
“Emergence”
FLASH FICTION
Hal Ackerman
New York, New York
“Instructions on How To Make a Pot of Chicken Soup as Instructed by a Succession of Deceased Former Lovers”
Chris Allen
Middletown, Rhode Island
“The Partisan”
Coleman Bigelow
Maplewood, New Jersey
“Dancers”
P. Jo Anne Burgh
Glastonbury, Connecticut
“The Stepmother’s Defense”
Lori Closter
Hubert, North Carolina
“At the Bay”
Jennifer Coyer
Houston, Texas
“Five Minutes”
Alexa Donley
Federal Way, Washington
“Moth Wings”
Doris Ferleger
Wyncote, Pennsylvania
“Five Full Moons”
Jamie Finn
New York, New York
“A Spark of Life”
Kelly Hill
Louisville, Kentucky
“Cat’s Whisker”
Joseph Kierland
Glendale, California
“Night Flights”
Robin Lovelace
Plainfield, Indiana
“The Valley”
Robert McBrearty
Louisville, Colorado
“Suspicion”
Lisa Ochoa
Tucson, Arizona
“Jenny’s Wishing Well”
Darlene Rivais
Salt Point, New York
“Swan Song”
Jeanne Rogow
Indianapolis, Indiana
“Signals”
Mandeliene Smith
Lexington, Massachusetts
“Threshold”
Jonathan Song
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
“Far from Home”
Ellen Sperling
Shutesbury, Massachusetts
“Loss”
D. Sulaitis
Park Ridge, New Jersey
“Dievas X”
NONFICTION
Kay Bontempo
Brooklyn, New York
“O Rasa, Thou Art God”
Agata Brewer
Crawfordsville, Indiana
“Bread”
Eleanor Fitzsimons
Dublin, Ireland
“The Yew Tree: ‘Dark Guardian,’ Giver And Taker Of Life”
Ellen Graf
Cropseyville, New York
“Bob Hollow and Me”
Anne Gudger
Banks, Oregon
“His Story Not My Story”
Julia Harte
Brooklyn, New York
“Rebel With A Cause”
Thom Hofman
San Diego, California
“The Guilt We Harbor”
Andrew Holtzman
Upper Black Eddy, Pennsylvania
“The Calm After The Storm”
Judith Katzman
Austin, Texas
“Still”
Lolita Brayman
San Francisco, California
“Letters Between Trees”
Claire Lawrence
Danville, Pennsylvania
“Honey, My Honey Honey”
Joshua Levy
Montreal ,Quebec
“Sorry”
Ryan Nourai
New York City, New York
“American Everest”
Alex O’Brien
London, England
“How a $10k Poker Win Changed How I Think”
Cheryl Reed
Lottsburg, Virginia
“The Incident”
Emil Rem
Calgary, Alberta
“Rock Bottom”
Robert Silverman
Key West, Florida
“Nimrod’s Lookout”
Charity Starrett
San Antonio, Texas
“The Murder Plot”
Jeanne Wilkinson
Madison, Wisconsin
“To Catch a Wave”
Megan Williams
Bellingham, Washington
“Trains and Other False Memories”
— Honorable Mentions —
POETRY
Sigman Byrd
Westminster, Colorado
“The Coming Zombie Apocalypse”
Kathleen Calby
Hendersonville, North Carolina
“Mercy and 98 Other Names”
Federico Manfredo De Palma
Huntington Beach, California
“Immigrant’s Song”
Broderick Eaton
Bend, Oregon
“Raspberries”
Simon Peter Eggertsen
Champlain, New York
“My Father Sketches Out Our Ancestry, Threads the Continuum”
Jonathan Greenhause
Jersey City, New Jersey
“In Caballito, April ’98”
B. Fulton Jennes
Ridgefield, Connecticut
“Maria Knew the Secrets”
Mary Makofske
Warwick, New York
“Sex, that Peacock”
Liz Pozen
Boston, Massachusetts
“A Proposal”
Adriana Stimola
Cortlandt Manor, New York
“If at the Door”
Pamela Sumners
St. Louis, Missouri
“Skipping Rocks”
James Swansbrough
Signal Mountain, Tennessee
“What I Say/What Goes Unsaid”
Ceci Webb
Duluth, Georgia
“floor poem”
Kate Whitlock
Williamsville, New York
Shadow Life
Muhammad Saad Yacoob
Sterling, Virginia
“Goodbye”
FICTION
Catherine Boyd
Los Angeles California
“The Devil Made Me”
Kirk Boys
Sammamish, Washington
“A Simple Return”
Linda Davis
Santa Monica, California
“The Smoker”
Namrael Drawde
Witterings, West Sussex
“In Loving Memory”
Andri Elia
Jacksonville, Florida
“Amayine, a Worldmaker Story”
Sarah Gilligan
Windsor, Connecticut
“MARION•29”
Mark Harris
Topanga, California
“The Cactus”
Louise Hawes
Pittsboro, North Carolina
“Paid in Full”
L. A. Jones
Tulsa, Oklahoma
“Death in Death Valley”
Susan Kleinman
White Plains, New York
“Overdue”
Janine Kovac
Oakland, California
“Dancing on the Blade”
Aimee LaBrie
Cranbury, New Jersey
“Our Boys”
Ari Lessard
Haddonfield, New Jersey
“Bone”
Cynthia Reeves
Wayne, Pennsylvania
“Dream of His Father’s Farm”
Jonathan Stone
New Canaan, Connecticut
“Eulogy”
FLASH FICTION
Bendix Anderson
Brooklyn, New York
“Anxiety: Man’s Search for Meaning”
Steven Cahill
East Burke, Vermont
“Lawn Party”
Therese Eiben
Hudson, New York
“The Today Show”
Carlos Rafael Gomez
Ithaca, New York
“Morning”
Jaime Greenberg
Boca Raton, Florida
“What was–”
HM Grout
Saint Albans, Maine
“You Can Do This”
Melanie Hess
West Vancouver, British Columbia
“Denouement”
Brett Hunt
Hai Ba Trung District
“Guide Dog“
Dev Jannerson
New Orleans, Louisiana
“Just Because You’re Paranoid”
Sue Kim
Providence, Rhode Island
“Blossom”
Julie McGue
Michigan City, Indiana
“The Nursing Fawn”
Ellen Mullen
New York, New York
“The Station“
Emma Patterson
West Sayville, New York
“Made of Magic“
Stephanie Shafran
Northampton, Massachusetts
“Crooked Toe“
Alan Veach
Petaluma, California
“How We See What We Know”
NONFICTION
Amy Cook
New York, New York
“The New Frontier”
Ruth Crocker
Mystic, Connecticut
“Predators at Home”
Mary Ann Deak
Omaha, Nebraska
“Be Prepared”
Geoffrey Graves
Palm Springs, California
“Five Words”
Deborah Green
Placitas, New Mexico
“Not the Real Estate”
Diana Heald
Brooklyn, New York
“Buenos Aires, Past Subjunctive”
Ellen Leary
New York, New York
“Sons And Mothers”
Les Morison
Johannesburg, South Africa
“The Boy Who Became a Bully”
Diane Raven
Marquette, Michigan
“Inhumanism”
Abby Alten Schwartz
Lansdale, Pennsylvania
“Salt”
Evelyn Sharenov
Long Beach, California
“In Extremis”
Ros Weaver
Margate, United Kingdom
“My Body”
Ernestine Whitman
Appleton, Wisconsin
“A Path Back to Sanity”
Kirk Wilson
Austin, Texas
“Scenarium”