Each year, the English department’s Creative Writing Program conducts a university-wide competition that seeks to award the best undergraduate work in creative nonfiction, fiction, and poetry.

Below, find this year’s winners, runners-up, and honorable mentions. Congrats to all!

CREATIVE NONFICTION

First Place

• Paris Huckaby for “Desperado“

Runner-Up

• Cole Zimmerman for “Post-Inferno Ashtray”

Honorable Mentions

• Darwin Shire for “Following the Death of My Sister”
• Izabelle Hood for “Garden of Memory”

 

FICTION

First Place

• Cana Peirce for “Average Joe”

Runners-Up

• Ali Niaz for “White Ferrari”
• Elise Humes for “Benjamin”

Honorable Mentions

• Lauren Frazier for “Just Remember the Shoes”
• Charlie Beauregard for “The Devil’s Box”

 

Poetry

First Place

• Darwin Shire for “Where have the Insects Gone,” “Burial Water,” “Holy Dark,” and “Gulf of Mexico”
• Andy Parker for “golden shovel: dong xian to emperor ai,” “poem for a lover in red thread,” “stigmata,” and “portrait of man(go)hood as envy”

Runners-Up

• Izabelle Hood for “Drying Off,” “Conceived from Jazz,” “The Fall,” and “The New York Bird”
• Grey Kittelson for “The Characters in the Tarot Card,” “Cherry Cola,” and “Watering Hole Obituary”

Honorable Mentions

• Dean Vance for “Recalled to Life,” “You,” and “Eyes”
• Mikayla Crotchett for “Dear Dad,” “Mourning Glory,” and “Falling”
• Mae Ferry for “Quarter Sonnet” and “Winter Walk”