Creative Writing Competitions
In the leadup to the Spring Literary Festival each year, the department of English Studies hosts several creative writing competitions for high school, undergraduate and graduate writers. Winners receive cash prizes and are recognized during the festival.
HIgh School Competition
High school students in North Carolina are encouraged to submit their creative writing. To submit, click the appropriate category below. Note: you may submit in one category only.
Deadline EXTENDED: March 13, 2026
1st - $250
2nd - $100
3rd - $50
1st - $250
2nd - $100
3rd - $50
1st - $250
2nd - $100
3rd - $50
Undergraduate Competition
Undergraduate students at ĢƵmay submit creative work in the below categories for a chance to win a cash prize, publication in and a spot to read the Spring Literary Festival. This year's theme is animalism. All submissions will be considered for publication in the next issue of Nomad.
Deadline: January 20, 2026
Runner-up - $100
Judged by Tommy Hays
is the author of five novels, including The Marriage Bed, just released by Blair. His other novels are The Pleasure Was Mine (St Martin’s Press), In the Family Way (Random House), Sam’s Crossing (Atheneum) and YA novel What I Came to Tell You (Egmont USA).
Runner-up - $100
Judged by José Orduña
received an MFA from the University of Iowa’s Nonfiction Writing Program. His first book, The Weight of Shadows: A Memoir of Immigration and Displacement, published by Beacon Press, explores his experience as a Mexican immigrant in the United States. He works primarily in long-form literary essays that interrogate the entanglements between the human and the institution, and all the attendant violence.
Runner-up - $100
Judged by Joy Priest
is the author of Horsepower (Pitt Poetry Series, 2020), winner of the Donald Hall Prize for Poetry, and the editor of Once a City Said: A Louisville Poets Anthology (Sarabande, 2023). Priest is on the faculty of the University of Pittsburgh’s MFA program in Creative Writing, and a curator at the Center for African American Poetry & Poetics. Her second collection of poems is forthcoming from Duke University Press in 2027.
Graduate Competition
Graduate students at ĢƵmay submit creative writing for this multi-genre contest (fiction, nonfiction and poetry). Winners will receive a cash prize, publication in and a spot to read in the Spring Literary Festival. All submissions will be considered for publication in Yonder.
Deadline: February 6, 2026
1st - $250
2nd - $100
3rd - $50
Judge by Zackary Vernon
is a writer and scholar based in Boone, North Carolina. His YA novel Our Bodies Electric was published in 2024. Zack is also the editor of two scholarly collections: Summoning the Dead: Essays on Ron Rash and Ecocriticism and the Future of Southern Studies. His work has appeared in a range of magazines and journals, including The Bitter Southerner, Carolina Quarterly, and Southern Cultures, and he received the Alex Albright Creative Nonfiction Prize from the North Carolina Literary Review. He is currently an Associate Professor of English at Appalachian State University.
2025 Contest Results
Find the winners, runners-up, and finalists below!
Winners of this year's high school competition will receive a cash prize and be recognized at noon on April 8 in the UC Theater, during the Spring Literary Festival.
Poetry
Winner - "Where I'm From" by Ava Albright (Swain County High School)
Judges' note: The judges were impressed with level of concrete, specific detail in Ava’s poem “Where I’m From,” and by its original ending. “Where I’m From” poems are often taught, but very few are as sensorily vivid as this one, and very few end up questioning the premise of what it means to be “from” somewhere. Ava’s did both.
Runner-up - "Pen or Sword" by Willow Lindsay (Weaver Academy)
Judges' note: The judges found the poet’s multivalent use of “you” intriguing, and loved the saltwater imagery of the marsh. The poem moves from one point to a very different point by a series of associative leaps that are surprising but ultimately feel inevitable.
Finalists
- “Clean,” Willow Falanga (Union County Early College)
- “Dancing,” Maya Ferrer (Jackson County Early College)
- “All I Manage to Squeak Out,” Sy Cooke (Swain County High School)
- “An Ode to a Messy Room,” Ella Day (Asheville High School)
- “Fe-male,” Holland Grace Winkel (Martin L Nesbitt Discovery Academy)
- “What is Forgot,” Honor Bella Clark (Southeast Guilford High School)
- “A Consideration of Scale,” Kay Rodrigue (Martin L Nesbitt Discovery Academy)
- “What’s Left,” Azalea Carter (Girls Leadership Academy of Wilmington)
- “Red Heron,” Amelia Sherman (School of Inquiry and Life Sciences at Asheville)
- “The joy we are, imperfect- The joy we have, impenetrable,” Beau Bianchi (School of Inquiry and Life Sciences at Asheville)
- “Someone,” Keira McIlvaine (Riverside High School)
Fiction
Winner - "Rest in Peace" by Amelia Amadio (William Amos Hough High School)
Judges’ note: "Rest in Peace" is an artful blend of technology, memory, and addiction. In such a short space, readers will find a relatable protagonist, one who is deeply human and who once again reminds us that just because we can do something doesn't necessarily mean we should.
Runner-up - "Bobby Jackson's Perfect Day" by Samuel Debodisco (Middle College of Forsyth County)
Judges' note: “Bobby Jackson’s Perfect Day” is a poignant and darkly humorous exploration of psychological crisis, using the protagonist’s unraveling to examine the exhaustion of modern life, and ultimately suggesting that even in moments of deepest despair, the possibility of hope and human connection can still emerge.
Finalists
- "Final Reverence," Sally Ann Beberdeen (Southeast Guilford High School)
- "How Freckles Came to Be," Piper Grant (Summit Charter School)
- "Our Impromptu Worship of These Stars," Anthony Caviness (McDowell High School)
- "Threads of Fate," Mikayle Forester (Union Prep Academy)
- "Familiar Strangers," Jessie Chen (Marvin Ridge High School)
- "We're Here," Kyleigh Martin (Union Prep Academy)
- "A Rare Moment," Lupita Sleigh (Union Prep Academy)
- "Cups of Coffee and Flesh," Erzsebet Kulcsar (Union Prep Academy)
Nonfiction
Winner - “The 1st Sunlit Day, Ending with Adrianne Lenker's Zombie Girl” by Sophie Houck (Asheville
High School)
Judges’ note: “1st Sunlit Day” feels fresh and inviting. The writer does a great
job bringing us into a seemingly mundane moment and then transforming it into something
more extraordinary through attention to detail. The things they see often don’t “fit,”
like the guy who looks like Santa Claus. It’s surprising in that way. The language
has an infectious energy, like the bright green that slowly climbs the mountains in
spring.
Runner-up - “Sometimes” by Margaret Higginbotham (School of Inquiry and Life Sciences at Asheville)
Judges’ note: In “Sometimes,” the way the author plunges into their emotions and conveys
the intricacies is very well done. It's bold in its poetry—the writer weaves a beautiful
tapestry with their words and takes chances with form. This piece took effort and
risk, and it paid off.
Finalists
- "Marked and Muzzled,” Talia Favatella (North Wake College and Career Academy)
- “18th Street House,” Simone Peay (Hoggard High School)
- “Anxiety,” India McNair (Terry Sandford High School)
- “What Addiction Left Behind,” Ellie Keene (Hoggard High School)
Students were invited to write a short story inspired by the painting "Boat Dock" (below). Winners will receive a cash prize, an opportunity for publication, and a chance to read at the 2025 Spring Literary Festival on April 9 at noon.
1st place - “Between The Cracks” by Avery Luft
Judges' note: Avery Luft’s short story, “Between The Cracks,” is a superb balance of style, place, and characterization. Ellie, the teenage narrator, speaks to us with a voice of hurt, longing, and hope as she tries to navigate her way out of oppressive loneliness. Despite her insecurities, she makes a courageous effort to be accepted at last. What she finds at the boat dock, a place that fascinates her, is a devastating betrayal. She accepts her irrevocable defeat there, and the long-abandoned dock becomes both her solitary refuge and her dead end.
2nd place - “The Ones Who Stay” by Kaylynn Paisley Stiles
Judges' note: Kaylynn Paisley Stiles’ “The Ones Who Stay” is a haunting, lyrical meditation on the difficult choices facing four men in a slowly dying town. The story is narrated by Evan, the one who stays, as he stands alone on a boat dock saying a reluctant goodbye to his brother, his uncle, and his best friend. While Evan understands each man’s reason for leaving, that knowledge does little to relieve the weight of loneliness they leave behind. Nor does it alter his own choice to stay, to try and hold the place together, to be the keeper of its stories.
3rd place - “Jack’s Knob” by Anna Robertson
Judges' note: “Jack’s Knob” by Anna Robertson presents us with a group of friends who are complicated, but still manage to maintain their relationship. Using third person point of view Robertson writes a detailed story that presents the issues between Cecil and his wife, June. With realistic dialogue, the characters come to life on the page. The experience on the boat leads to a life altering decision that Cecil has to make that affects his relationship with his family and friends. The story leaves readers wanting to know more about what happens with Cecil and the rest of the characters.
Finalists
- “A War of One Soldier” by Allem Rojas
- “Agnes’s Five Easy Steps to Succeed” by Lottie Lannigan
- “Alabamian Nights” by Asher Cherry
- “My name is John William Wallace” by Trey Balch
- “The Oars Moved First” by Rufaro Rutizirira
- “The Weight of Water” by Emily McDowell
Winners of this year's undergraduate competition will receive a cash prize, publication in Nomad, and a chance to read at this year's Spring Literary Festival on April 9 at noon.
Kathryn Stripling Byer Prize in Poetry
Winner – “The Levity of Construction” by Andrew Baker
Judge note: It’s refreshing to read a poem that’s given itself over to pondering fate and perception of the world we’re creating, as well as some of the most pressing questions of our time. But then, “What do I ask if nobody is here to answer?” The speaker begins and quickly plunges into existential puzzlements of life, perhaps not so much to find answers in this dystopia, but, rather, to understand what makes one human; what makes one good. “They told me I was better off alone if I kept bad company. / Now there is no good company left...”
Runner-up – “The Burntshirt of the Oil Gods” by Annah Lael Toms
Judge’s note: In this intensely lyrical and image-rich prose poem, time and place have a toll on the body, that's the female body, that's the landscape, that's inheritance. The past is not really the past, but what lingers in scent or scenery, an “archaic impression” that echoes back through memory “buried in bone.” Through it all, the speaker bears witness to the ravaging face of greed of the Oil Gods.
Finalists
- “A Memory,” Camille Williams
- “Cocua,” Ethan Albert
- “Modern World,” Rylee Guess
- “Untitled Jig,” Cameron Ferrell
- “false god,” Blake Murdock
- “sentir,” Blake Murdock
Prize in Fiction
Winner - “Naomi Fritz” by Lottie Lannigan
Judge note: This story captivated me from its opening lines and kept me reading with its very human voice, its lovely details (Mr. Pinkerton’s dish ears! The paint on Naomi’s fingers in the picture of her sign!), and, frankly, its complicated main character. I’m jealous of how layered the author has managed to make Grace in such a short piece.
Runner-up - “Strength in Gold” by Madeline Snow
Judge's note: What struck me most about this story—in which a girl learns to turn what the world perceives as a weakness into her greatest strength—was the delicious weirdness. Throughout the piece, there were moments of genuine shimmery strangeness (the angel sighting, the feel of the phantom limb…) that took ahold of me in the best way and made me want to keep reading.
Finalists
- "Home for the Holidays," Rozalyn Walton
- "Experiment Happens," Emma Boling
- "Europa's Skeleton Crew," Stephen Nickles
- "The Blood Without," Rachel Surrusco
- "Husk of Theseus," Finley Dunn
Prize in Literary Nonfiction
Winner - "Hard Lessons/Tough Love" by Michael King
Judge note: Striking in its psychological and narrative complexity, this essay captures the nuances of intimacy, trauma, and memory with unflinching honesty and literary grace. King’s use of voice, layered imagery, and structural risk creates an unforgettable reading experience that employs daring and devastating prose to navigate the blurred lines of affection, harm, survival, and healing. I’m amazed by how he conjures memory as both haunting and ritual, culminating in an imagined yet still powerful reclamation: “I punch you again and hear the crack of your nose breaking... until your blood stains those sacred stones.” And still, he is able to meet himself in that pain with tenderness: “That’s enough... He did what he did. It’s over now.” This essay is a masterful act of emotional reckoning—devastating, courageous, and beautifully told.
Runner-up - "Glow in the Dark Stars" by Avery Luft
Judge's note: The essay lyrically captures how childhood spaces can provide poignant meditations on memory, identity, and writing as a means of survival. It pulses with longing, reminding us of how the past lives within us and imprints itself onto the walls of our childhood environments. Luft achingly captures the coming-of-age experience in a room filled with ghosts and glowing plastic stars, writing: “So much has changed, yet almost nothing has at the same time. I am fourteen. Or sixteen. Or nineteen... still stuck between the blue lines on a sheet of cheap notebook paper.” This intimate, atmospheric piece is steeped in a nostalgia that quietly bruises.
Finalists
- "Ghosts in the Wings," Avery Ledbetter
- "Might I Suggest," Makayla S. Williams
- "Real Mountain Blues," Rylee Guess
- "My Mother's Feet," Rachel Elaine McMahan
Winners of the grad lit competition will receive a cash prize, publication in Yonder, and a chance to read at the Spring Literary Festival on April 9 at noon.
1st place - “An Analysis of Ancient Scythian Religious Practices; or, A Day in the Life of a Transgender Soothsayer” by Ashbury Haight
Judge note: It’s very “of the moment” but that’s not why I picked it. The writing is sharp and it’s engrossing. I came away feeling like I learned about both the author and the world.
2nd place - “Girls” by Nyoka Pierce
Judge's note: A clean and thoughtful poem that I found subtly moving. The language is simple, but the structure elevated it for me.
3rd place - “Eleven” by Nyoka Pierce
Judge's note: Full of small details that pulled me in from the start. Never sags from beginning to end—which is no easy thing. Clever.
Finalists
- “Shadows,” Faith Brooks
- “Christmas at Papa and Granny’s,” Faith Brooks
- “Trout Pond,” Faith Brooks
- “Os-da-shu-na-le-I,” Faith Brooks
- “Bigspin Flip,” Brian Longacre
- “A Great Big Sea,” Daniel Acocella
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