Category: Contests

1st place: Kay Talley-Leach for “Old Things New”

2nd place: Deborah Schaulis for “Two Seeds”

Congratulations to the June Members Only Contest non-fiction winners:

• 1st – Mark Young for Family Reunion
• 2nd – Kay Talley-Leach for Peace in the Storm
• Honorable Mention – Mark Young for The Clock Thief

1st place: Kay Talley for “A Special Introduction”

2nd place: Shawn Blakely for “The Honor of Endurance”

Honorable Mention: Andie Wearden for “Disconnect”

Flash Prose

• 1st place — Kay Talley, The Power of a Lightning Bolt
• 2nd place — Kay Talley, The Trusting Trainer

Flash Poetry

• 1st place — Janice Post, Ride On
• 2nd place — Sharon Ellison, What’s Happening

Announced March 21, 2026 at the annual workshop.

Fiction for Adults (Judge: Priscilla Bettis)

• 1st place — Lily Lemmons, Clementine
• 2nd place — Linda Gordon, The Piano
• 3rd place — Dee Dee Chumley, Escaping the Busybodies
• Honorable Mention — Seah Haynes, What Lies Beyond

Memoir/Nostalgia (Judge: Shann Arriaga)

• 1st place — Hallie Wright, The Tooth Fairy Always Knows
• 2nd place — Chuck Webber, The Night We Went English
• 3rd place — Chuck Webber, Skipping Across the Reservoir

Flash Fiction (Judge: Ginny Greene)

• 1st place — Charles Anderson, KLAP Radio 101
• 2nd place — Hallie Wright, Refusing the Roller Coaster
• 3rd place — Nancy Forbis-Stokes, The Barrel Race
• Honorable Mention — Nick Sweet, Dogmatic Dilemma

Rhymed Poetry (Judge: Ginny Greene)

• 1st place — Nick Sweet, The Rustic Statesman
• 2nd place — Chuck Webber, Tea Time
• 3rd place — Chuck Webber, Jack’s Haunts
• Honorable Mention — Kathryn Tolar, Sehnsucht
• Honorable Mention — Rosalene Liu, Pomegranate Juice

Unrhymed Poetry (Judge: Karen Kosonen)

• 1st place — Kelly Bristow, Thirty Miles East
• 2nd place — Kelly Bristow, Roadkill
• 3rd place — Kathryn Tolar, The Forgotten Season
• Honorable Mention — Dee Dee Chumley, Dance Class
• Honorable Mention — Chuck Webber, God as a Cleaning Woman

Science Fiction (Judge: Karen Kosonen)

• 1st place — Charles Anderson, The Lost Colony of Roanoke
• 2nd place — Charles Anderson, Space Farmer
• 3rd place — Charles Anderson, Third Star on the Left

(No other genres had enough entries to be judged.)