CREATIVE WRITING

Graduate Creative Writing Awards

Spring 2025

Fiction
Winner: “Niagara Falls” by Connor White
Second Prize: “First Fire” by Sarah Harshbarger
Third Prize: “The Impossible Real” by Mariah Rigg

Poetry
Winner: “Cleaver” by Lola Gómez Amador
Second Prize: “Cairn For the Fox at Kentucky Dam Village” by Mariah Rigg
Third Prize: “Something Coming” by Maryam Malik

Nonfiction
Winner: “Coal Heritage” by Iris Loehr
Second Prize: “An Incomplete Record of Caticorn Mythology” by Max Hunt
Third Prize: “A Certain Kind of Sickness” by Temi Ariyo

Spring 2024

Fiction
Winner: “Target Island” by Mariah Rigg
Second Prize: “Managed Retreat” by Sarah Harshbarger
Third Prize: “Storm Windows” by Shira Haus

Poetry
Winner: “Dusk” by Patrick Nome
Second Prize: “Breakfast” by Shira Haus
Third Prize: “Layover” by Catherine Garbinsky

Nonfiction
Winner: “The Particulates of Memory” by Andrew Butler
Second Prize: “Mixtape: Love is an Ascent” by Shlagha Borah
Third Prize: “Smiley Face” by Ayesha Ahmed

Spring 2023

Poetry
Winner: “The Yellow Notebook” by Gabriel Antonio Reed 
Second Prize: “Six Inches” by Emily Jalloul 
Third Prize: “Across/A Cross” by Clair Morris 

Fiction 
Winner: “Habituation” by Sarah Harshbarger 
Second Prize: “The Prettiest Girl at the Funeral” by Josie Tolin 
Third Prize: “Floodland” by Caoimhe Harlock 

Creative Nonfiction 
Winner: “Trueself: for Gershard Richter’s Betty (1988)” by Gabriel Antonio Reed  
Second Prize: “Simulacrum” by Shlagha Borah 
Third Prize: “Wasp and Orchid” by Emily Jalloul

Spring 2022

Poetry
Winner: “Exquisite Corpse as Cootie Catcher” by Sara Mae Henke
Second Prize: “The Chariot” by Catherine Garbinsky
Third Prize: “Kingsport: A Love Poem” by Andrew Butler

Fiction
Winner: “Floating Off” by Shane Stricker
Second Prize: “Barns are Painted Red Because of the Physics of Dying Stars” by Andrew Butler
Third Prize: “Barb Prescott vs. State Road 50” by Jeffrey Amos

Spring 2021

Poetry 
Winner: “Mother, a Digital Triptych” by Emily Moeck 
Second Prize: “sonnet for my prefrontal cortex” by Casey Smith 
Third Prize: “Parts of an Autobiography” by Kate Wright 

Fiction 
Winner: “Bootstraps, Pull Yourself Up” by Emily Moeck 
Second Prize: “Quality Control” by Shane Stricker 
Third Prize: “A Liturgy of Teeth” by Joshua Allen Sorrells

Spring 2020

Poetry
Winner: “Womb” by Ashley Dailey
Second Prize: “Bits of Clay Make the Whole” by Anne Hunley Trisler
Third Prize: “Salaat on 41st and 7th” by Emily Jalloul

Fiction
Winner: “Arrangements” by Lance Dyzak 
Second Place: “Charters” by Jeffrey Amos
Third Place: “Drowning Micah” by Jordan Kinnett