We’re so thankful to partner with Judge Aimee Bender on this prize. She was so impressed with the shortlisted stories that she chose co-second-place winners, so we will honor four stories with prize money and publication!
1st Place: To the Tower by Skyler Melnick
2nd Place: The Desert Sound by Mikhaela Woodward
2nd Place: The Pebble and the Witch by Emma Li
3rd Place: Our Lady of Clean Kitchens by Joseph Hernandez
- Dear Goldilocks by Amy Marques
- Heart of Stone by Sylvie Althoff
- The Incantation by m.a. biddle
- The Nesting Doll Paradigm by Nadia Born
- The Boy Who Couldn’t Sleep by Sam Boyer
- Heterothermy by Hannah Brown
- He is the River Monster by Chris Corlew
- The Cycle by Lucienne Cummings
- Her Little Animal by Anissa Elmerraji
- Narrative Seeds by Jane Garrett
- Cordelia’s Ghosts by Cynde Gregory
- Our Lady of Clean Kitchens by Joseph Hernandez
- Black with Ash, Red with Grinding by Chip Houser
- Second Sight by Gaynor Jones
- To Pay the Piper by Julian Koslow
- The Last Time I Saw Frank by Aimee LaBrie
- A Fairy Tale for Florida Girls by Janice Leadingham
- The Pebble and the Witch by Emma Li
- To the Tower by Skyler Melnick
- Animal Nature by Kim Steutermann Rogers
- Thank You For Coming by Sarah Elizabeth Schantz
- Mama Bear by Dr. Michelle Tousignant
- At Whistling by Cameron Walker
- The Desert Sound by Mikhaela Woodward
- Let Down by Calla Wright