Tadpole Press 100-Word Writing Contest
November 2025 Winners
This was the 11th round of the Tadpole Press 100-Word Writing Contest.
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Our special guest judge was Angeline Boulley. A member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, Angeline is a storyteller and #1 New York Times best-selling author who writes about her Ojibwe community.
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We happily continued our partnership with Compassiviste Publishing, a nonprofit publishing house dedicated to social and environmental justice. ​Amber Byers, Laurel Twitchell, Mari Mendoza, ​​Zoë Whittall, and Johanna Craven rounded out the team of judges.
In addition, we offered a new collaboration with the Micro podcast team. This was an additional bonus opportunity for writers who entered our contest by September 30. The following 5 writers were selected to read their entry on air. Listen here.
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Antonia Headlam-Morley from the United Kingdom:
You will die, I tell my baby. But first you must live. In my prayers, your sweet flushed skin will thicken and crust, your feathered hair will gloss and shine and silver. I insist you indulge a marvellous life, one chaptered with brilliant misadventure, which leaves lines on your face and scars on your knees. You must grow and stretch and bend, ache from laughter and love and be weighed down with a heart sodden heavy and brimming.
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I will die, I tell my baby. But haven’t I lived quite the remarkable life, to have
found myself here, with you?
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Caris Pasch-Cooper from the United States:
Matryoshka
54 years before I pee on a plastic stick, I am an egg inside a fetus inside my grandmother.
Nestled like matryoshka dolls, we drive from El Paso to Juarez for a cheap haircut. I measure 120 microns in diameter—the width of each hair on my grandmother’s head. My mother is cauliflower-sized, with no hair of her own. We all share a single body, a single scalp.
And yet, the snip-snip of the barber’s scissors foreshadows our inevitable unnestling.
I can still hear it now, as two pink lines form.
I run for my phone to call them.
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Dana Wall from the United States:
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Metamorphosis
Mother’s Alzheimer’s blooms backwards—first forgetting my name, then my father’s face, finally her own reflection. But today she remembers the pond behind our childhood home, describes tadpoles with perfect clarity: how they breathe through gills before discovering lungs, how their tails dissolve to birth legs, how transformation requires forgetting what you were.
“We’re all becoming something else,” she whispers, touching the window where rain traces temporary rivers down glass.
I hold her hand—paper-thin now, translucent as a tadpole’s skin—and wonder if forgetting is just another kind of metamorphosis, memory dissolving to make room for whatever comes after knowing.
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Jessica Merrick from the United States:
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Bench at Dawn, Bench at Dusk
At dawn, the bench is a stage for beginnings: runners stretching, coffee steam curling, a woman rehearsing apologies to the gulls. The wood smells of dew and forgiveness.
By dusk, the same bench becomes witness to endings. Lovers argue quietly. A boy folds a rejection letter into a paper plane. A father counts fireflies, promising himself he’ll call tomorrow.
It’s the same slats, same bolts, but the light changes everything. The bench holds laughter and tears without preference, a custodian of our fragile cycles.
Sit there twice in one day, and you’ll understand: beginnings and endings share the same seat.
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John Delaney from the United States:
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Fireplace
We lie in bed like old logs on a grate:
a little kindling, and we glow.​
We are thrilled to celebrate the following 330 entries, which comprise the top 24% selected for the longlist. Because judging is still underway, we have listed these without author names in order to allow for blind judging. In some cases, the titles have been removed in order to adhere to the word count.
Final results will be announced at the Celebration of Words on January 29, 2026.
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"17 Years Later"
"3/6/1987 Our first"
"A glimmer of"
"A Letter to"
"A long way"
"A Miscellany of"
"A Pearl in"
"After all, even"
"After we returned"
"Aging words a"
"Am I smarter"
"AMERICAN MAGIC In"
"An Inky Truth"
"Anagnorisis The moment"
"ANNIE Give a"
"Another hundred seconds"
"answer the knock"
"AP History Broke"
"As you read"
"Aspirations Winter’s first"
"At dawn, the"
"At Night My"
"At university Her"
"Because you live"
"Betty died last"
"Between the Lines"
"Bravely Done She"
"Bread Suddenly poetry"
"Cancer's Waxing Granny"
"Carrying the Sky"
"Celestial Signs My"
"Comfort Castle Weary"
"Compass Above: Clouds"
"Craigslist: Used Crib"
"Critical Thinking2 Did"
"Crying over spilt"
"DAISY I sleep"
"Dancing Bear Lately"
"Dear Ma, It"
"Dementia Before momma’s"
"Dissonance A vertical"
"Diya in the"
"Do I look"
"Do you also"
"DOTTY AND DRIFTLESS"
"Dream Journal Same"
"Dreaming Big When"
"During the week"
"EARTH KID Who"
"Emotional Rollercoaster The"
"Empty Cicada Shells"
"Empty Pen, Full"
"Engagement Party July"
"Epics with frayed"
"Even kangaroos We"
"Evening Ecdysis I"
"Ever Involved It's"
"FALLEN In the"
"Feast Friends, their"
"Feel of You"
"FILAMENTS Moonglow, warm"
"Finding a Husband"
"Fireplace We lie"
"For six thousand"
"Forwards For the"
"France - October 1915"
"Freediver Close your"
"From Texas to"
"From the Point"
"Geologic Journey At"
"Giant Marshmallows The"
"Girl with a"
"Girlhood What once"
"Gold star, flameless"
"Goldenrod and Grief"
"Grandfather I inherited"
"Half-Drawn Suddenly"
"Heart Pay The"
"Heart Pie When"
"Heartbeat Life always"
"Heat Wade short-legged"
"Hello there, little"
"Her bones ached"
"Her emotions engulf"
"Herstory She knew"
"His third-grade class"
"Hope I caught"
"How to Assess"
"How to Be a Human"
"How to be a poet"
""I can medicate"
"I can’t remember"
""I didn’t do"
"I grew up"
"I Have No"
"I like your"
"I look at"
"I Meant What"
"I missed apples"
"I missed my"
"I never thought"
"I never told"
"I paced the"
"I passed the"
"I prepare for"
"I sprinted to"
"I still see"
"I used to"
"I wake up"
"I was never"
"I was next"
"I was there"
"I wish for"
"I’d commit a"
"I’ve always been"
"I’ve always valued"
"If I switch"
"If time were"
"Impossible dreams. We’re"
"In a thousand"
"In the ruins"
"In the shallow"
"Ink Made of"
"Intro to Clown"
"It felt like"
"Ivy Nostalgia is"
"James inked rivers"
"jumpsuit not a"
"Just Waves I"
"Kapusta Two months"
"KHAGINA She is"
"Lapidary This field"
"Last Semester of"
"Lavender Box She"
"Let’s go out"
"Lightning was dangerous"
"Little moon I"
"Look, I’ve never"
"Make Up I"
"Mama Raised a"
"Maternité 1905 In"
"Matryoshka 54 years"
"Maybe that’s why"
"Meaning There once"
"Metal and Petal"
"Mom, at your"
"Moonbeams bless me"
"MOONLIT STRANGERS I'd"
"Morning Courage I"
"Motherly Love It’s"
"Muse My Muse"
"My ‘sun’ They"
"My First Memory"
"My grandma always"
"My Most Embarrassing"
"My mother told"
"My shadow stopped"
"No one noticed"
"No one taught"
"No one warned"
"Not For Me"
"Nude puddled like"
"Ode to Queso"
"Oh, to unscrew"
"Old Guy’s Unsolicited"
"On an oversized"
"On the walk"
"One hundred years"
"One Last Supper"
"One morning, a"
"One night I"
"One night, she"
"Open your eyes"
"Oxymoronic You rise"
"Papa was an"
"Pears I ask"
"Peeling Orange, Ten"
"Pharaoh's Hunter This"
"PIRATES REUNIONS Reunions"
"Planting Hyacinth Bulbs"
"Polaris from the"
"Prayer at Dawn"
"Prayer in three"
"Pretenders Be careful"
"Purpose It was"
"RE: cosmic apocalypse"
"Recalibration The sun"
"RECIPE FOR HAPPINESS"
"Recovery In the"
"Repose I came"
"Resurrection Bay We"
"Reversal Finally, I"
"Ribs I trace"
"roadtrip the sun"
"Safe Harbor She"
"Sasha did not"
"Sassafras All my"
"Satan, Release My"
"Seasons of the"
"SEEDS We run"
"Servants and prince"
"Shaka Week Five"
"Sharks can lose"
"She is Beautiful"
"She walks slowly"
"She was once"
"SHE WILL SING"
"Shells They say"
"Snowballs Time travelers"
"Sofia bloomed gold"
"Sol lives alone"
"Somebody Somewhere Someday"
"Someone Is Always"
"Speaking My Truth"
"Stained Glass Early"
"Standing at the"
"Standing on Triton’s"
"Stars The planets"
"STILL POISED Though"
"STILL When I"
"Stillness Rewiring Concerns"
"Sunsets Are Blind"
"Swan Song The"
"Tangible “You’re not"
"Teddy's Promotion My"
"Ten years. Again,"
""That’s gone.” “Sorry,"
"The Altered Name"
"The best meal"
"The bog has"
"The Border “White"
"The clockwork sky"
"The day you"
"The drizzle half-obscures"
"The Dust Storm"
"The Earth took"
"The first time"
"The Fortuneteller A"
"The headstone looms"
"The hospital vending"
"The Hush Between"
"The Incident of"
"The Kiss Our"
"The lake used"
"The Last Time"
"The Life Cycle"
"The man knelt"
"The man that"
"The moon smashed"
"THE MYSTERY OF"
"The Optimist I"
"The past is"
""The people who"
"The petals drip"
"The Poet The"
"The Potato Truth"
"The Power of"
"The Rind Every"
"The shape of"
"The Shark Is"
"The Sphinx’s Truth"
"The Story of"
"THE TIE THAT"
"The trees have"
"The Truth I"
"The truth is"
"The turkey was"
"The Woman Who"
"There’s a store"
"There's wisdom in"
"They are with"
"They say God"
""They say it's"
"This is my"
"Tightrope (A Survival"
"To my ten-year-old"
"To the despots"
"Today I met"
"Today Today was"
"Toddler Sage On"
"TONGUE-TIED Poor tongue"
"Tonight, crying clouds"
"Tori Beth watched"
"Towels The pile"
"Truth comes easiest"
"Truth Doesn’t Hide"
"Truth Reflexions Truth"
"Truth Seeds I"
"Turkey Karma Two"
"Two teenagers sit"
"Under Anesthetic, I"
"Under the Desert"
"underwater life your"
"Wanting “I think"
"Warning: Follow Safety"
"Waterlily in Solitude"
"We Moved So"
"We sat beneath"
"We stood on"
""We’re here,” I"
"Wedding Present I"
"Westley's Sonnet Tonight"
"What I meant"
"What We Tell"
"When a piece"
"When I cease"
"When I think"
"When I told"
"WHEN IT’S TIME"
"When Light Returned"
"When the power"
"When the town"
"When we look"
"Whenever anyone asked"
"Where the stars"
"Where the Truth"
"Whether I feel"
"WHIM small winsome"
"Windswept Our front"
"Winter in Spring"
"Winter Love We"
"With magic at"
"Words come tumbling"
"Would you still"
"You and I"
"You Are a"
"You gotta be"
"You made chai"
"You will die"
"You’re gonna laugh"​
Curious how you can create a winning entry? Request feedback on your entry and we'll tell you what we love about your piece as well as ways to make it even better.
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You get tips right from the source custom-tailored to meet our judges' expectations, help you hone your craft, and create the kind of entry that's selected as a winner in the Tadpole Press 100-Word Writing Contest.
Thank You
Congratulations and thank you to everyone who has dared to dream and share your words, story, and heart with us. You matter. Your dreams matter. Keep writing.
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