Writing Awards 57
Jed Myers of Seattle, Washington for “One on One”
Jed Myers is author of three books of poetry, most recently Learning to Hold (Wandering Aengus Press, 2024), winner of the Wandering Aengus Press Editors’ Award, and previously The Marriage of Space and Time (MoonPath Press) and Watching the Perseids (Sacramento Poetry Center Book Award). His poems have appeared recently in Rattle, The Poetry Review, RHINO, Hole In The Head Review, Terrain.org, Solstice, Nimrod International Journal, River Heron Review, Southern Humanities Review, and elsewhere. Myers lives in Seattle, where he’s Editor of the journal Bracken.
Kim Farrar of Astoria, New York for “Why I Never Get Anywhere, or, A List of Mostly Failed Poetry Ideas Scribbled at the back of Ross Gay’s Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude“
Kim Farrar is a writer and collage artist living in NYC. Her poetry collection, The Impossible Physics of the Hummingbird, is forthcoming from Unsolicited Press in 2025. Her chapbooks, The Familiar, and The Brief Clear, are available from Finishing Line Press. Her poems and essays have most recently appeared in Midwest Review, Alaska Quarterly, and New Ohio Review. She is a three-time Pushcart Prize nominee. Her work can be found on her website at Poetrysite.blog.
Kate Simonian of San Bernardino, California for “It Goes Both Ways”
Kate Osana Simonian is an Armenian-Australian writer and assistant professor at California State University, San Bernardino. Her work has been published in the Pushcart Anthology, Chicago Tribune, Iowa Review, and Best Australian Stories, and she’s received various prizes and fellowships including the Nelson Algren Award, a John Steinbeck Fellowship, and recently, a California Arts Council Emerging Writer Grant. Kate lives with her three delightful cats and is finishing off her first novel, Singleton.
Doug Crandell of Douglasville, Georgia for “Blank Many Days”
Doug Crandell has won fellowships from the Virginia Center for the Arts, the Sherwood Anderson Foundation, the Big River Association, and the Jentel Artist Residency. He is a former Barnes & Nobel Discover Great New Writers pick. His fiction appears in the Best American Mystery Stories 2020 and 2024. Essays have been selected for inclusion in the Pushcart Prize for the 2018 and 2023 anthologies. NPR’s Glynn Washington chose Doug’s story for the 2018 COG Page-to-Screen Award. Stories are forthcoming from Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, the SUN Magazine, Missouri Review, and the Raleigh Review. www.dougcrandell.com
— FINALISTS —
POETRY
Bill Van Buskirk
Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania
“Why I Don’t March on the 4th of July”
Suzanne Burns
Bend, Oregon
“A Pack of Cigarettes”
John Paul Caponigro
Cushing, Maine
“Marking Territories”
Kristina Cecka
Minneapolis, Minnestota
“the poet proposes alternate endings to eve”
Deborah DeNicola
Margate, Florida
“To Trust the Light”
Latorial Faison
Chester, Virginia
“How to Bury Your Mama”
Doris Ferleger
Wyncote, Pennsylvania
“Red Glow”
George Harvilla
Dumont, New Jersey
“Mapping Mars”
Elizabeth Hill
Harlem, New York
“The Debate”
Lydia Host
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
“Lovely Breath”
Christiane Jacox
Ridgefield, Connecticut
“Hunger”
Kim Jensen
Baltimore, Maryland
“Breath Holding Contest (in Southern Lebanon)”
Lisa Majaj
Latsia, Cyprus
“Ya ‘Amar”
Ari Mokdad
Traverse City, Michigan
“Wudu”
Barbara Mossberg
Eugene, Oregon
“The pigeon collecting poppies from commemorative field where soldiers died. To build a nest.”
Sally O’Keeffe
Etobicoke, Canada
“Exercise Bicycle at McLean Hospital”
Jendi Reiter
Northampton, Massachusetts
“Portrait of a Marriage”
Anne Sandor
Warwick, New York
“The Perspective From Blue Bridge”
Ingrid Wendt
Eugene, Oregon
“Ars Poetica”
Mimi Yang
Auburndale, Massachusetts
“Your Dad Is Just Some Guy”
FICTION
Lesley Bannatyne
Somerville, Massachusetts
“Mad Lil”
Cécile Barlier
Lafayette, California
“Sophie”
Brett Berk
Narrowsburg, New York
“After the Fire”
Suzanne Burns
Bend, Oregon
“The Working Draft of a Very True Story of an Imaginary Encounter”
Evan Chronis
Dunlap, Illinois
“The Link”
Lesley Finn
Guilford, Connecticut
“Meltwater”
Julie Fisher
Hawley, Massachusetts
“Francais Aujourd’hui”
J. J. Galluzzo
Columbia Falls, Montana
“The Greatest of Bonds”
Isaac Grimaldi
Grand Rapids, Michigan
“The Dogmen”
Enid Harlow
Brooklyn, New York
“Henry’s Wife”
Joshua Levy
Montreal, Canada
“Fancy Meat”
Katerina Limenopoulou
Mamaroneck, New York
“You, Too, Can Breastfeed”
K-Yu Liu
Brooklyn, New York
“My Five Thousand Meter Years”
Sean Phoenix
London, United Kingdom
“North by North East”
Caitlin A. Quinn
Pacifica, California
“They Slice Meat on the Right”
John Rex
Royersford, Pennsylvania
“Cody/Mika”
Lones Seiber
Morristown, Tennessee
“A Scattering of Blue”
Silvia Spring
Washington, DC
“Cuentos de Hoy”
Keliher Walsh
Sherman Oaks, California
“New Frontier”
Dan Winterson
Belmont, California
“A Stone’s Throw”
FLASH FICTION
Hal Ackerman
Los Angeles, California
“Matricide”
Rascher Alcasid
Bronx, New York
“Yet”
Roberto Argentina
Houston, Texas
“Driving Will Save Me”
Patricia Q. Bidar
San Leandro, California
“Science”
Lisa DellaPorta
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
“Colors”
Hayley Gelfuso
St. Charles, Illinois
“Liminal Creatures”
Hannah Horcha
Katy, Texas
“Susto”
Ae-rin Lee
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
“japanese superstar club confessional!”
Kit Mas
New York City, New York
“Alterations”
Ed McManis
Denver, Colorado
“The Colors We Become”
Thad Nodine
Santa Cruz, California
“Middle Child”
Lyndsey Pilling
Essex, Great Britain
“Kerouac’s Next Chapter”
Hannah Shepard
Stuyvesant Falls, New York
“Picnic”
Nora Shychuk
Fort Collins, Colorado
“Moments After”
Adam Sifre
Wayne, New Jersey
“I Know You”
Jez Stockdale
Oxford, Great Britain
“The Guillotine”
Kristen Talley-Tahir
Pleasanton, California
“The Trick”
Keliher Walsh
Sherman Oaks, California
“Trampoline”
Dan Winterson
Belmont, California
“Inflation”
Rob Wright
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
“Hauntings”
NONFICTION
Tamar Baker
Rancho Cucamonga, California
“The Dregs”
Josephine Birdsell
Columbus, Ohio
“Using Buddies”
Joel Bond
Olathe, Kansas
“One Foot In Front of the Other”
Mac Carey
Great Falls, Virginia
“Paul, Me, and Two Long, Hot Summers”
Andrea Doray
Englewood, Colorado
“Benediction”
Yuko Frost
Hernden, Virginia
“In the Old Capital”
Lori Johnson
Charlotte, North Carolina
“Window Vignettes”
Libby Jones
Berea, Kentucky
“To Render Justice to the Visible Universe: What I Learned in Reynolds Price’s First-Year Writing Class”
Mary Jumbelic
Fayetteville, New York
“I Remember Her Name”
Jen Knox
Reynoldsburg, Ohio
“Volunteer”
Rick Lamplugh
Livingston, Montana
“A Journey of Body, Mind, and Heart”
Dennis Littrell
Folsom, California
“A Visit to Willenburg”
Kurt Luchs
Kalamazoo, Michigan
“The Letter Box”
Maija Makinen
Brooklyn, New York
“Finland Is Not Real”
Carolyn Megan
Portland, Maine
“Losing My Words”
Rose Mustakova
London, England
“This Side of the Looking Glass”
N. R. Robinson
Columbia, South Carolina
“Giants and Gryphons”
Shelley Stoehr
West Haven, Connecticutt
“Hurly-Burly”
Caitlin Youngblood
Allen Park, Michigan
“A Quiet Life”
Rachel Zemach
Santa Rosa, California
“When You Give a Duck a Cheerio”
— Honorable Mentions —
POETRY
Pamela Alexander
Belmont, Maine
“Vessels at Large”
John Beck
Okemos, Michigan
“Katherine Consults the Fashion Psychic”
Cory Brown
Trumansburg, New York
“Out in the Deep”
Cathy Cain
Lake Oswego, Oregon
“Lamplight”
Ginny Lowe Conners
West Hartford, Connecticut
“I Present this Summer’s Spiderweb Award to the Orb Spider on Our Deck”
Allan Ebert
Washington, D.C.
“Too Cool Cats”
Allis Hamilton
Chewton, Australia
“Dreamboat”
Michael Lavers
Provo, Utah
“Darkness and Rain”
Amy Lerman
Mesa, Arizona
“No Word in English Rhymes with Month”
Gary Lester
Seattle, Washington
“Iris”
Connie Li
San Francisco, California
“Those Days”
Clif Mason
Bellevue, Nebraska
“African Rain”
Tom Riley
Johnsonville, New York
“Shoveling Snow”
Karen Thibodeau
Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico
“Land of the Leaping Elk”
Linnea Williams
Charlotte, North Carolina
“On Juneteenth, I paint”
FICTION
Iphis Abrams
San Francisco, California
“Papillon”
Elizabeth Baranes
New York, New York
“Portrait”
Linda Barnhart
Womelsdorf, Pennsylvania
“Aperture”
Jacob Bentley
New York, New York
“Lost”
Shannon Bowring
Bath, Maine
“Accidental Green”
Donna Ferguson
Cambridge, Great Britain
“The Lido”
Robert Goodwin
South Windsor, Connecticut
“This Won’t Last”
Astor Itella
Bonn, Germany
“Underground Class”
April Jin
Toronto, Canada
“The Untitled Youth”
Rebecca King
Lillington, North Carolina
“Song of the Vireo”
Mary Lewis
Decorah, Iowa
“Dinosaur Green”
Maren Ostrem
St. Paul, Minnesota
“Writing on the Wall”
Jaime Pessin
Brooklyn, New York
“Mikveh”
Timothy Rien
Graeagle, California
“Facets of a Broken Rock”
Francis Rosa
Green Bay, Wisconsin
“Landfall”
FLASH FICTION
Austin Alexis
New York, New York
“The Operation”
Joshua Beggs
Aurora, Colorado
“The Last McDonald’s”
M.K. Brake
Mount Hermon, Massachussetts
“Every Time a Bell Rings”
Paula C. Brancato
Livingston, New Jersey
“Three Men”
Dana Jaye Cadman
Pleasantville, New York
“The Candy”
Don Carter
Riverdale, New Jersey
“A Trillion Silent Witnesses”
Elizabeth Enright
Kewaskum, Wisconsin
“Hay Fires”
Ava Kinsey
Dunellen, New Jersey
“Full of Grace”
John Kumpf
Princeton, New Jersey
“Oddities”
Robin Lanehurst
Portland, Oregon
“Ecosystem”
Jennifer Laxton
Columbus, Georgia
“A Good Horse”
Gwen Mullins
Chattanooga, Tennessee
“Hot Tamales”
Cynthia Rettig
Pacifica, California
“Only that Shore”
Tony Rogers
Cambridge, Massachussetts
“The Tip”
Jeanne Rogow
Indianapolis, Indiana
“The Second Girl”
NONFICTION
Hayden Cagle
Austin, Texas
“I Wish I Could Waltz Across the Sky”
Graham Campbell
Worcester, Massachusetts
“My Best Friend and the Closet I didn’t Know About”
Sandra Eliason
Minneapolis, Minnesota
“Experience Sisters”
David Frost
Pacific City, Oregon
“Sleepwalking to Bethlehem”
Thea Iberall
Dedham, Massachussetts
“Why I Tell Personal Stories”
Joy Johnston
Atlanta, Georgia
“On the Line”
Elina Kumra
Sunnyvale, California
“Born This Way”
Karen Lauritzen
Clayton, North Carolina
“Not My Job”
Nicholas Magnolfi
Uppsala, Sweden
“Eyes of My Sea”
Andrew Morrison
San Antonio, Texas
“A Journey to the Western Isles: A Modern Immram”
Esther Ra
Stanford, California
“The Consolations of Snow”
Jennie Russo
New York, New York
“Paradise City”
Doug Sherr
Kingman, Arizona
“The Dog, the Desert, and Me”
Lee Ann Summers
Boulder Creek, California
“The Reunion”
Jeffrey Weinstock
Bay Harbor Islands, Florida
“Agent of Change”