We are happy to share the following winners with you:

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Inaugural Mini Moon Contest winner: $50 USD goes to Jennifer Colwell from the United States.

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Minefield

I howl as shards pierce my sole.
Damn Legos.

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Snow Moon Mini Contest winner: $50 USD goes to Jaye Frisina from the United States.

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Forty-six mason jars later, her blueberry jam business took off.

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Bear Moon Mini Contest winner: $50 USD goes to Sonja Faul from the Netherlands.

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With fertile fingers, she coaxed life from the barren dirt.

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Worm Moon Mini Contest winner: $50 USD goes to Eric Tomblin from the United States.

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It rained so hard, the fish could walk the sand.

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Daffodil Moon Mini Contest winner: $50 USD goes to Marissa Grunes from the United States.

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I’d rejoin humankind if my head fit through the door.

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We received 1,627 entries from 62 different countries in our main contest. After much deliberation, we are thrilled to share that the following entries placed somewhere in our top 10:

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1st place: $2,000 USD goes to M Pettersen, age 19, from the United States.

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Tyrannosaur Elegy

There will be no stones to remember the shape of her.
That honor is reserved for a select few, sinking softly into the Montana mud.
There will be no stories to remember the soul of her.
No language lasts sixty-six million years, save the burning tongues of stars.
No one will know that she loves the warm winds of early autumn.
No one will know that she fears the searing teeth of wildfire.
No one will know that she thinks the sky is falling, nor that it is the most
beautiful thing she’s ever seen.

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2nd place: Editing package with Tadpole Press ($1,450 USD value) goes to Christen McCann, age 22, from the United States.

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Woke up carrying the ocean in my chest
and a knife’s edge in my mind.

 

Somehow,
neither cuts me open.

 

Somehow,
I will walk with both.

 

 

The tide gnaws at my sternum,
but the ribs do not splinter.

 

The blade grazes my thoughts,
but the skull does not yield.

 

 

I am saltwater & steel,
a body made of floodplains and fault lines,
splitting, shifting—
but never breaking.

 

 

Womanhood is tectonic.

 

 

It is the ocean refusing to empty.
It is the knife learning

 

I was never meant to be carved.

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3rd place: Publishing and marketing package with Compassiviste Publishing ($6,000 USD value) goes to Sunnye Collins, age 48, from South Africa.

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I Know You

I surrendered to the seagull as she stole my fry
because I knew a friend had dared her.
I lay still while the ant traversed my toes
because she might have been training for weeks.
I bubbled a breath after I brushed past the jellyfish
because I know she goes where she’s blown.
I peeked as the baboon picked the apple in my yard
because I, too, like low-hanging fruit.
We exchange glances, sniffs, wavelengths, and mutual moments frozen
because we are trying to remember where we’ve met before.

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4th place: Manuscript assessment package with Compassiviste Publishing ($1,500-$3,000 USD value) goes to Beverly Roberts, age 37, from the United Kingdom.

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​The Museum of Unfulfilled Longing

The Museum of Unfulfilled Longing is closed today. Exhibits featuring
Regret, Things Left Unsaid, and Lost Hope are not open for public view. We
kindly request that you do not try to peek behind that curtain, where Shame
and Overthinking are being curated by our staff. The Museum is closed
today; please do not dwell in the entrance. Go outside and stand in the sun.
Feel the air on your skin. The Museum will be open again tomorrow.

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5th place: Writing coaching package with Tadpole Press ($600 USD value) goes to Tamupuwa Kamba, age 28, from the United States.

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One day, Earth will let us go.
Wildflowers will bloom from our bones—not to mourn, but to adorn our
bodies for Her quiet renewal.
Mycelium will cradle our sleeping heads. Ashes will drift down forgotten
rivers, carried by the winds that once filled our lungs.
New life will curl up inside abandoned markets and homes.
Green fists of willow will rise through rusted windows—life unfurling,
surviving, even in decay.
Extinction will hum, not howl—a hymn.
It will be kind.
Gentle.
A world, soft and alive, where we are only soil,
and memory.

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6th place: $100 USD goes to Charlotte Soper Mills, age 30, from the United States.

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My daughter saw a snail for the first time today.
And you know what?
I think we’re gonna be OK.

She pointed five pudgy fingers,
screaming in feral delight
at the slow push-pull
and million shades of brown.

 

Her body shook with unbridled glee,
little lips expanding, contracting
In a perfect O to utter her amazement:

 

Woah

 

I thought the world was fresh out of wonder,
but there it is, delighting in a garden pest.

 

My daughter saw a snail for the first time today.
And you know what?
I think we’re gonna be OK.

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7th place: $100 USD goes to Megan Benham, age 26, from the United Kingdom.

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The old coat never felt quite right, anyway. People told me how good I
looked in it, that it brought out my eyes, that it was feminine.

 

Never mind that it itched like a bed of hay, or hugged my arms too close, or
that it absolutely did not suit me.

 

I take it off the hanger now, and it doesn’t fit anymore.

 

I’m larger, fatter: rounder. Now without my harsh edges, smoothed like a
pebble in a stream, made soft by love. It won’t even do up.

 

I throw the coat away—thank goodness. Thank goodness I have grown.

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8th place: $100 USD goes to Fiona Jensen, age 57, from Canada.

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On Observing a Wagging Rump

Personally,

 

I do not thrust my whole head

 

into snowbanks,

 

my entire being quivering with joy.

 

I may be missing something.

 

Perhaps I will try.

 

9th place: $100 USD goes to Virginia LeBaron, age 51, from the United States.

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Second Marriage Honeymoon

Can I confess the best damn part of our honeymoon
was that afternoon in the cozy bar
of our quaint hotel on the Eastern Shore.
With perfect wainscotting and old wooden floors,
July rain murmuring against the tall windows,
leaning into the Chesapeake, holding in all the sound.

 

Both our laptops open, perched at a high-top
eating pretzels and drinking beer, elbows kissing.
Sharing a spreadsheet, changing our beneficiaries
listing accounts, tallying the totals.
Piecing our lives together, one cell at a time.

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10th place: $100 USD goes to Autumn Bettinger, age 41, from the United States.

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        Green strawberries grow in tangled clumps through the meadow. I’m pulling the underripe fruit to pickle. Thinking about you, sprinkled under their stems. How you taught me to twist the pale berries so they’d pop free. I wonder if you got sucked up into the roots when it rained, or if you were lost in February’s thaw.

        You wanted to rest among the wild things. I emptied what remained—buttery laughter, steady hands—into the undergrowth. But ashes are just ashes.

        These strawberries are every bit of you.

        And I will pick you, every time.​

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The top 3% of entries have been selected for the shortlist. Congratulations to the following writers:

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Anastasia Xiao for "I like to "

Athina for "Unseen"

Autumn Bettinger for "Green strawberries grow"

AZ Khan for "The One "

Beth Cogswell for "Snorkeling Montana"

Bethany Kolb for "She said she "

Beverly Roberts for "The Museum of"

Billie Oh for "baby daddy 2.0"

Brandon Sheaffer for "When we met "

Brianna Alers for "I was stumbling "

Charlotte Husnjak for "She thinks about"

Charlotte Soper Mills for "My daughter saw"

Christen McCann for "Woke up carrying"

clementine for "Having only "

Connor Iadevaia for "Calloused"

Ebele Echendu for "You are who"

Eleni Briar for "You told me"

Fawn Greene for "Mamá"

Fiona Jensen for "On Observing a"

Haeley Cole-Boksner for "The blinds block "

Hannah for "I wait for"

Hasun Park for "The night of"

Henry Hudson for "His name was"

Jamie for "Each Night I"

Johnna Guillerman for "Not This Time"

JoRene  Byers for "Ripe Berries"

Katharine L Wiegele for "I cannot hold"

Kay Rae Chomic for "Winter Beach Day"

Kristen Lee for "My friend once"

L. Alecks for "Swallowed by Love"

Lara Shah for "mine."

Lohini Gudibanda for "Cartography of Ordinary "

Lucy Rajwani for "I still feel "

M Pettersen for "Tyrannosaur Elegy"

Maria Sosa for "I hesitantly accept "

Matthew Daniels for "Invidious Harbour"

Maureen Atwell for "Pregnant like a "

Megan Benham for "The old coat "

Michael Lavers for "Why My Poems"

Michelle Shinn for "You are in "

Nicole Nunez for "Laundry Left to "

Shifra Shaman Sky for "Hawk"

Sienna Lagdamen for "If the night"

Sunnye Collins for "I Know You"

Tamupuwa Kamba for "One day, Earth"

Virginia LeBaron for "Second Marriage Honeymoon"

Vivian Steele for "To Live Forever"

William Smith for "They Called Us "

Yasaman Jalali-Kushki for "Baby elephants"

Yasaman Jalali-Kushki for "Pomegranateblossom"

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The top 20% of entries have been selected for the longlist. Congratulations to the following writers:​​​

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A. B. Daniels-Annachi for "To Be Written"

A.L. West for "Alone"

Aashna Malhotra for "Poem: World of"

Abivriksa Kalairajah for "Heavy eyelids, soft"

Adam Bloom for "Self help"

Adelaide Riches for "A crescendo of "

Adele Gallogly for "Widow Talk"

Al Tate for "New Year’s Christmas"

Alex Bollinger for "When I Was"

Alex Herz for "An aggressively healthy "

Alex Kolker for "TIME"

Alex McCue for "Bright blue caterpillars "

Alexis Colson for "Inherited:"

Alia Ayer for "Driftwood Kingdom"

Alice Shaw for "NEW BEGINNINGS "

Alison for "Secrets"

Allison Sell for "Sometimes I imagine"

alysa b Wakin for "In 1995, there"

Alysa Wakin for "Hiking"

Amaris Haley for "Soundless Extinction "

Amy DeFlavis for "Fools Rush In"

Amy Greig for "Astray "

Amy Millios for "Cannonball"

Amy Rutherford for "Tightrope"

Anastasia Xiao for "I like to "

Angela for "APRIL SONNET"

Angela Sucich for "Fallen"

Angelyn Ray for "The house is "

Anna Valaik for "Recently, I dreamt "

Anne-Marie Smith for "Etiquette"

Anushka Kanhere for "Eyes"

Arryn Owens for "I have been"

Arwa Lotfi for "Sipping White Wine"

Ashleigh Adams for "Run Home"

Ashley Schmitz for "We Sit Before"

Ashley Smith for "Drowning in the "

Athina for "Unseen"

Audrey Rose Salzano for "Trees"

Autumn Bettinger for "Green strawberries grow"

Autumn Cerise Bain for "beyond the veil"

AZ Khan for "The One "

B. Dalton for "Life Flashes"

Barbara Rouillard for "won’t forget it"

Becca Glantz for "Picking up the"

Becky Blaszak for "I Speak My "

Benjamin for "The Bird’s Hour"

Beth Cogswell for "Snorkeling Montana"

Bethany Brodsky for "And the Sea "

Bethany Kolb for "She said she "

Bev Kenik for "OVERWINTERING"

Beverly Roberts for "The Museum of"

Billie Oh for "baby daddy 2.0"

Bixie Friedman for "Fishes Wishes"

Bonnie J. Morris for "Jumping rope with"

Brandon Sheaffer for "When we met "

Brianna Alers for "I was stumbling "

Brianna Beaudet for "Though the bowl "

Briar Wilson for "Brown Tufts "

Brittney Elder for "Puttanesca"

Brooke Apalategui for "It was my "

Bryanna Botham for "Eidolon"

C.F.A. Muller for "Candle"

Callie Crockett for "A silver sky "

Carla Lottering for "I found my "

Carlo Musso for "Yesterday I saw "

Carmen Kohlruss for "The children pause"

Carolina Butler for "To the Caterpillar"

Charlotte Doevle for "The Last Lightkeeper"

Charlotte Husnjak for "She thinks about"

Charlotte Soper Mills for "My daughter saw"

Chase Norman for "The morning it "

Chloe Ark for "THE MOON IS"

Christen McCann for "Woke up carrying"

Christen McCann for "The Chevy Malibu "

Chyna J. for "Winding roads stretch "

Claire Scott for "THE QUESTION"

clementine for "Having only "

Cole Martin for "I want to live "

Colleen Addison for "Caterpillar"

Connor Iadevaia for "Calloused"

Connor Sengaloun for "They say the"

Danielle Vincent for "I always knew "

Dávid Marczin for "I’m just a"

Deb E Bergman for "Horse Monsters"

Debbie Wingate for "Boundaries"

Devna Panda for "Sweet Summertime"

Diego Tovar for "Requiem"

Donald A. Ranard for "Pillow Talk "

Ebele Echendu for "You are who"

Edie Hines for "16"

Elara Friedman for "I bid a"

Elara Friedman for "Parade of Planets"

Eleni Briar for "You told me"

Elina Zhu for "It felt like"

Elise Doecke for "The Whale"

ELIZABETH DAVIS for "MOLLY"

Elizabeth Knott for "Sister-friends"

Elizabeth Seabrook for "You suggest a"

Ellen D. Vinde for "Simon says get "

Emma Sunog for "Almost no one"

Emma Sunog for "Off the right"

Eric Suben for "Preparing to move"

Erica Ives for "It was the"

Estefania De La Concha for "I matched with "

Eve for "Year of the"

Fawn Greene for "Mamá"

Fiona Jensen for "On Observing a"

Francesca Howard for "No headlines marked"

Frank Carber for "Though the fragrance"

Fred Rogers-Pope for "Are You Sure?"

Gabrielle Miller for "Will It Be"

Gaby for "I smash my"

Genghis Hahn for "Standing In A "

George Rogers for "Refraction"

Grace Russell for "I was born"

Grant He for "Liminal"

Gypsie-Ami Offenbacher-Ferris for "His Gift"

H Wheaton for "the past becam"

H.C. Rune for "Whispers of pages"

H.E. Ross for "The Sandman"

Haeley Cole-Boksner for "The blinds block "

Haley Addison for "Maître d’"

Hannah for "I wait for"

Hasun Park for "BUZZ"

Hasun Park for "The night of"

Heidi Banden for "My Coco"

Helen Young for "A neighbor came"

Henry Hudson for "His name was"

Holly Ackerman for "What Mothers Do "

Huck Shine for "Sometimes Love the "

Hyunwoo Jang for "A Memory Fading "

Ialin Lobo for "The Girl Who"

Ialin Lobo for "The Last Leaf"

Ian R. Villmore for "Charlotte Bronte’s Florida"

Isaac Chandler for "I walked back"

Isabella Hayes for "The man found "

Izzy Abraham for "By: The PLACE"

J Spru for "What do caterpillars"

Jade Fabello for "Father soil"

James Higgins for "In that Rain"

Jamie for "Each Night I"

Jamie Wilber for "My mother warned "

Jasmine Johnson for "June 6, 2013"

JC Du Bruyn for "I get used "

Jeff Taylor for "The Shallowing "

Jennifer Anderson for "Every morning he "

Jennifer Ferretter for "My father loved"

Jeremiah Johnson for "As tension fills"

Jeremiah Johnson for "Snowflake  "

Jessica Liu for "Sunlight shone through"

Jessica Lovejoy for "Sunlight drips through "

JH Tomen for "Someone Else "

JH Tomen for "Small Things"

Joanna Miller for "Remembering Birdsong"

Joanna Zhou for "fleeting \ eternal \ us"

Jodie Hughes for "Breaking"

Jody McBrien for "La Retraite"

Joe Zimmerman for "Sometimes I Carry "

John Sweeney for "To Butter the"

Johnna Guillerman for "Not This Time"

Jonathan Frank for "A hundred word"

JoRene  Byers for "Ripe Berries"

Joseph Pearson for "Sunrise, Once the "

Joyce Brinkman for "Find me one"

Juanita Coronado for "When we found "

Julian Fuller for "RESOLUTION"

Julie Whalley for "Our Walk"

Justin Dunphy for "He recounts his"

Kade Bergstresser for "Art Not Displayed"

Kaetochi Okemgbo for "Sleep disrupted by"

Kagan Sucu for "In the quiet"

Kaitlyn Letien for "​​Quiet Stars"

Kaitlyn Pacheco for "Last night, I"

Kana Wu for "Are you happy?"

Kara Branson for "Night was everywhere"

Kara Marie Schneider for "Echoes of the"

Karington Jackson for "Things I Couldn’t "

Karoline S. Bakken for "I’ve always known"

Katharine L Wiegele for "I cannot hold"

Kathryn Johns for "Sheets"

Kathy Lenney for "When your ex-husband"

Kay Rae Chomic for "Winter Beach Day"

Kaycee for "As a child"

Kiana Mohammadi for "You lost faith"

Kiryl Krayushkin for "Unnamed, he stops"

Kraig Robinson for "In her soap-drenched"

Kristen Lee for "My friend once"

Kristina Patterson for "The Closet"

Kristina Patterson for "Phew"

L. Alecks for "Swallowed by Love"

L. Alecks for "Friday 5:16 p.m."

L. Alecks for "Family Portrait"

Lakshita Leekha for "Assembly"

Lakshmi Karra for "Coca-cola"

Lara Shah for "mine."

Laura Lee for "Shells"

Lauren McLennan for "First Gold"

Laurie Macomber for "Anteater"

Leah Nicholson for "For Sale: The"

Lennon McConnell for "Monster!!!"

Lily Bastock for "THE BORROWING"

Lily Kimpel for "God Plays Piano"

Lily Truong for "By the time"

Linus Paul Lee for "Hey Ma, it’s"

Lior Levy for "The world swelters"

Lisa Han for "Her world is"

Liz DeGregorio for "The Nestling"

Lizzy Marie for "Songbird   "

Lohini Gudibanda for "Cartography of Ordinary "

Lois Wetzell for "Most of Them"

Lucia Haase for "Sparrows At Dawn"

Lucy Rajwani for "I still feel "

Luke Roberts for "Speech Patterns"

Lynn Gale for "We cycled to "

M Pettersen for "I have angels "

M Pettersen for "Tyrannosaur Elegy"

M.J.O Brewer for "CONSTELLATION"

Madeline Male for "Surreal Meal Cookbook"

Manu St. Thomas for "Antarctica"

Manu St. Thomas for "Almost"

Maria Sosa for "I hesitantly accept "

Mark Fryburg for "CLAUDIA"

Marlee Wegmiller for "My Sister Has "

Mary Ann Boyer Penttila for "Spring-ing"

Matt Kozar for "The splashes of "

Matthew Daniels for "Invidious Harbour"

Maureen Atwell for "Pregnant like a "

Max Nguyen for "Price Tags"

Megan Benham for "The old coat "

Meghan Rose Maloney for "THUS I AM "

Meredith McNown for "Not Friday"

Mesoma Victory Anyanwu for "IT’S JUST A"

Mica McAllister for "The crowded bar"

Michael George Spencer for "The world was "

Michael Lavers for "Why My Poems"

Michelle Shinn for "You are in "

Mizuki Yamagen for "Mothertongue"

MJ Kuhn for "VISITING HOURS"

Monona Wali for "Fur"

MRS UZOAMAKA B OKAFOR for "The Purple Bloom"

N. W. Stone for "Cold Resolute"

Nancy Gilbert for "Memory Keepers"

Nancy Simat for "Using fruit-like pores"

Narmeen Zain for "The stiffness, the"

Nate Hirschtick for "Blackberries Prayer"

Nathalie Marin for "Happy Haunting"

Nicole Cunningham for "REED SEED"

Nicole Cunningham for "YIELDING SILK"

NICOLE EIDEN for "CPR"

Nicole Nunez for "Laundry Left to "

Nicole van Wyk for "Oxymoronic"

Noëlle Désirée Akhavan for "The Artist"

Nourin Shiras for "Maybe we are "

Nysa Valentine for "The footnotes speak"

Pam Martin for "A Song for"

Pamela Bennett for "A disturbance in"

Paraskevi Kakares for "There is such"

Philip Robbins for "Clunker"

Preston Meys for "Midnight Musings on "

Priyakshi Devasarma for "Skygazing"

Qiaochu Song for "In this swift"

R.L. Lynn for "Open House"

Racheal Jones for "Bell Song"

Rachel Dzengelewski for "L-O-V-E"

Raymond Peachey, Jr. for "100 words to"

Rebecca Louise Ehrnman for "Missing – Father’s Laugh"

Reginald John for "RYE MOUTH"

Ren Glaser for "Shadowed"

Richie Barnes for "Inherited Wisdom"

Roger Vickery for "Beach lesson   "

Rohini Berry for "Snapshot"

Roshni Chowhan for "Dear Healthcare System"

Rowanne Gildore for "F.O.M.O."

Ruperi Jadhav for "Icarus"

Ryan Baker for "Hi everybody, hear"

Ryan Nadia for "The Empire of"

Saba Sebhatu for "Purple clematis flowers "

Sahas Seepuri for "DECODED"

Sally Deems-Mogyordy for "Denouement"

Samantha Morris for "A Book"

Sandra Vaisnoras for "Ukraine"

Sangbrita Basu for "The tweezer calls"

Sarah Malster for "Live Humbly, Die "

Sarah Malster for "Catcher 2023"

Sarah Neidhardt for "My neighbor has"

Savannah Holloway for "To: pipercarden1983@hotmail.com"

Scott Percelay for "No Mirror"

Seham Sahyouni for "The Swing"

Serenity Lane for "To Build a"

Shannon Trudell for "The chair in "

Sharika Nair for "The queen walked"

Shawnee Greene-Duarte for "Upcycling My Heart"

Sherin Nicole for "we paint our "

Shifra Shaman Sky for "Hawk"

Shivani Lingamneni for "The Archivist"

Shivani Lingamneni for "Lunar Mistake"

Shivani Lingamneni for "She/They"

Sid Joannette for "Empty Spaces"

Sienna Lagdamen for "If the night"

Sinéad Leigh for "mama"

Siomha McStay for "Goodbyes "

Stephanie Raoul for "A Tadpole Tale"

Stephen James for "At First Sight "

Sua Kim for "The Weight of "

Summer Waibel for "I share the"

Sunnye Collins for "I Know You"

Suzanne Griffin for "Her gnarled fingers"

Suzanne MacLaren for "The writer glared"

Sydney for "Bricks "

Takalani Munzhedzi for "Stop"

Tamupuwa Kamba for "One day, Earth"

Terri Mullholland for "String Theory"

Tim Bishop for "The Shoebox."

Tim Kirton for "It was evident "

Tolu Senok for "Pandora"

Traci McSwain for "Blue Opal Symphony"

Traci McSwain for "Root and Rise"

Vani Kannan for "Handwriting"

Vasuki Sunder for "One summer my"

Violet Rubenstein for "The rain remembers"

Virginia LeBaron for "Love Poem for "

Virginia LeBaron for "Stepmother"

Virginia LeBaron for "The morning after"

Virginia LeBaron for "Second Marriage Honeymoon"

Virginia LeBaron for "Pronouns in Love"

Vivian Steele for "To Live Forever"

William Georges-Garcia for "I live on"

William Smith for "How to Build"

William Smith for "Seven Years"

William Smith for "Souls"

William Smith for "They Called Us "

Xavier Combe for "Fly"

Xavier Combe for "Locked down"

Yasaman Jalali-Kushki for "Baby elephants"

Yasaman Jalali-Kushki for "Pomegranateblossom"

Yonnas Sium for "Loud and bright"

Zoe for "Her Eyes"

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Congratulations to our winners! And congratulations to everyone who dared to dream and created a little bit of inspiration in this world. You matter. Your dreams matter. Keep writing.​