Top Three Winning Selections
1. Emily Lutringer
Diminuendo (click title to read essay)
A glaring, brutal environment provides the backdrop for a young woman’s deliverance from chaos. Written with a rhythmic force, the author’s deft and inventive narrative crescendos and then fades in an imagistic and philosophical onomatopoeia.
2. Christine Pakkala
Some Trees
(click title to read essay)
Robbed of their innocence in a craggy, barren and dust swept trailer park, two young sisters survive an unjust existence, and ultimately find the joy of childhood that the world had so long denied. Written with cadences that evoke the land and what it can yield, this memoir transcends the ugliness of a harsh world, and resolves with poignancy, bounty and love.
3. Megan Smith-Harris
Makeover
(click title to read essay)
A love affair in disrepair causes a woman to inadvertently invoke God, who arrives wearing skin tight lycra and a push-up demi bra, and proceeds to paint beauty back into life of our protagonist. The author, both comedic and soulful, sets a glaring scene with perfectly timed juxtaposition between laughter, irony, and self-recognition.
WRITER OF PROMISE AWARD
A newly established scholarship and award, the Jean Sherman Memorial Scholarship Fund was created from an anonymous donation. In memory of Jean Sherman, the fund provides opportunities for emerging and aspiring writers at the university level to apply to WAC literary competitions and the winner to receive a $50 prize.
Adren Church
Maternal Instinct
(click title to read essay)
An unexpected intrusion changes the outcome of a romantic 10th anniversary dinner.
The following Honorable Writers all placed high on our judge’s lists:
Sarah Balsley: “Divorce Day” & “One In a Million”
Barbara Bleemer: “Decisions”
Christina Cotter: “Letting My Baby Go”
Julie Curtis: “Failure to Comply”
Deirdre Doran: “Sleeping on the Analyst’s Couch”
M. Teresa Duse: “Federal District”
Elsie L. Ferrara: “I Want a Wedding Ring”
Eugene Gottesman: “A Testimonial” & “Parallels”
Rose Horowitz: “The Business at Hand”
Karen G. Jordan: “The Collector”
Nneji Lilian: “Moirai: A Case of Serendipity”
Libby Mitchell: “The Lucky One”
Laurie J. Stone: “The Wish”
Allen Swerdlowe: “The American Son”
Anne Torry-Ballou: “Creamsicle”