Overall, this year’s contest was exceptionally successful. We saw an total increase in submissions this year from 112 entries last year to 139 entries this year. The Young Writers category saw tremendous interest this year up from six entries last year to 37 entries this year! We saw the next biggest increase of entries in the Poetry category from 22 entries last year to 42 this year.

We owe much of our success this year to our sponsors. Celtic Cat Publishing sponsored the prize in Short Fiction and Test Prep Experts sponsored two prizes in Young Writers. Thank you very much for their support of writers and the Knoxville Writers’ Guild Annual Contest.

The next contest kicks off March 31, 2017. Anyone interested in helping out with this Guild tradition should contact me, Donna Kappa, at info@knoxvillewritersguild.org, or just find me at the next monthly meeting. If you are interested in judging one of the categories or sponsoring the contest, let me know that, too!

Thank you to everyone who entered to the contest!

Novel Excerpt

Winner: Mark Dlugash “The Fastest Girl in Redhook”

Runners-up:

Kerwin Frix “Thoughts of Vandalism”

Arthur Long “Doldrums”

Literary Short Fiction

Winner: Terry Wyatt “Eulogy for Great-Aunt Pearl”

Runners-up:

Victoria Griffin “Crybaby”

Linda Hoagland “Uncovered”

Nonfiction

Winner: Greer Fox “Getting On, Getting By”

Runners-up:

Ray Penn “Do Not Go Gently into That PE Class”

Ray Penn “The Kiss”

Poetry

Winner: K.B. Ballentine “Permanence Has Nothing to Do with Love”

Runners-up:

Lea McMahon “Reflections”

JP Schuffman “For Us Who Overslept in the City of Six-Million”

Young Writers

Winners:

1st prize: Sophia Foster “Revelations”

2nd prize: Justin New “New Daddy”

Runners-up:

Maggie Gordan “3:47am”

Jacob Hattaway “Laundry Day”

Faithanne Palmer “Awful Irony”