Write On! 2023 Adult Short Story Contest

Write On 2023

We'll see you again in 2024

Thank you to everyone who participated! Download the eBook to read the winning entries from this year's contest.

Write On 2023 Contest Winners eBook cover

2023 Winners and honorable mentions

First Place

Passage, by Alec Walker

Second Place

The Crypt, by James Reid

Third Place

Letters from Home, by Annika Hudson-Laursen

Honorable Mentions
  • To Live Forever, by Mary Kay Smith
  • Time to Remember, by Jane Limprecht
  • The Man Who Destroyed the World,
    by Ryan Sybertz
  • Defrost, by Zoe Maliszewskyj
  • One for the Road, by David K. Hendrickson
  • She Who Walks with Spirits,
    by Debra Snyder
  • Sir Arthur and the Dragon, by Kieran Paulsen
  • It's Like They're Right Here with Us,
    by Matthew Annis
  • This House is Haunted, by Katherine Diemer
  • Grace Falling, by Susan Reese
  • The Not-Time-Machine, by Heidi Vermette
  • The Starlight Mitra, by Nicole Bazemore

10-Year anniversary anthology

The 2022 competition marked the 10th anniversary of the Write On! Adult Short Story Contest. In the first 10 years, more than a thousand stories were submitted to the contest, with staff reading and scoring each submission and delighting in the wide scope of stories that have ranged from hilarious to absurd, joyful to heartbreaking. While choosing a winner each year is always a tall task, their variety well represents the storytelling prowess of the local community. Thank you to everyone who has participated, and here's to reading the next 10 years' worth of incredible tales from local authors! Download the Write On! 10-Year Anniversary Anthology.