1st place: $2,000 USD goes to Tiffany Harris from the United States.

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I didn’t mean to steal the moon, but there it was, glowing softly in my backpack.

Its weight pressed into my spine, a heavy ache reminding me of the last time I carried too much.
 

The sand whispered secrets that tangled with my own. Each step stretched time, the sky above a vast indifference.
 

I paused, letting moonlight seep through the seams, pooling on the desert floor like spilled milk.
 

It reminded me of her—how I could never hold on to anything.

 

I wondered if the moon missed the sky or if it, too, needed to run.

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​2nd place: Publishing and marketing package with Compassiviste Publishing ($6,000 USD value) goes to Emily Rinkema from the United States.

 

Tomorrow, We’ll Put Our Bird Dog Down

We brought her to a bird sanctuary once. The sign said no dogs, but we were the only ones there. We ran down the walkway to the overlook. She bounded through the reeds, birds exploding into the sky.
“She’s so happy,” John said. So were we.
“We could get arrested,” I laughed.
“We’ll pretend she’s not ours,” he said.

Tonight, we’re hers, both of us together. We don’t think about who we’ll be after tomorrow. We sit on the floor and John feeds her steak cut into cubes the size of robin’s eggs.

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3rd place: Manuscript assessment package with Compassiviste Publishing ($1,500-$3,000 USD value) goes to Seah Kim from the United States.

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Tiny King’s March

Eyes flash from side to side. The world fiddles its fingers, patient as he crosses. Cars stall, waiting for the light to flash green.

But momentarily, they are waiting on him.

 

His hand in mine, we march on, striding on the lined carpet painted out for us. Skipping, giddy, finding life in the moment. Long legs take short steps, short legs take long steps, each trying to match the other. We are the perfectly aligned contrast.

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Right now, he is many things.
King of the world;
Monarch of the crosswalk;
Ruler of my heart;
This tiny toddler.

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4th place: Editing package with Tadpole Press ($1,450 USD value) goes to Eleanor Sharpe from the United Kingdom.

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I was only half listening the first time she said my name. The sound of the syllables between her teeth went through me like a harpoon. She was talking to Raphael with a glass of gin and pink in her hand. She had already moved on to some other subject. The name I had picked out from the broken pieces of my old, dead one came and went from her lips like she had known it for years. She smiled at me from one girl to another. She made it all feel as easy as being alive.

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5th place: Writing coaching package with Tadpole Press ($600 USD value) goes to Frances Wise from the United States.

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You’re lost, finally.

Cold is that smell that burns the soft hairs in your nose. The air carries smoked salt and the breeze from a fire several hours dead, not yours.

The nighttime light that drips through the webbing of damp trees is clean and cosmic.

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Your weight is in your feet. You’re pressing small pools into the wet sand. Run, loose, free. Water seeps up against your skin and enters a world that smells of the soles of you.

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You curl inside a whale’s bleached ribcage. The bare bones expand from your dreaming.

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6th place: $100 USD goes to Laura R Wagner from the United States.

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One night, through my telescope, I saw a sign hanging from a galaxy 100 million light-years away. It said, “HELP.”

 

I thought: “Someone needs help!” before correcting: “Someone NEEDED help, long, long ago.”

 

If I had two empty cans and enough string to span 100 million light-years, I could ask: “Were you saved, in the end? I’m sorry I didn’t get your message sooner. You see, when you sent it, there weren’t primates yet.”

The tree outside my window whispered, “There’s no one there.”

 

As lonely as a distant star, I hung a sign from my galaxy. It said, “HELP.”

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7th place: $100 USD goes to Alex Herz from the United States.

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At most, I could make a hotdog, a snake, a phallic joke if I was younger. The boy, with outstretched palms, receives a red dog with large ears; the man with bright eyes and a bowtie hands it to him. They share a smile. The man saves it behind his eyes for later, a rainy-day fund. The boy has no sense of fiscal responsibility; he spends his fully, immediately, and shares it with me. For just a moment, I feel light as a balloon. My face twists to a happy shape. I float. Higher. Higher. Light as a balloon.

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8th place: $100 USD goes to Juliette Zhu from the United States.

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the last supper

the attic bears gifts – moths
in wardrobes, lace come undone. in a house that is no longer mine
there live corpses i loved more than the living, pulp
staining palms, fingernails dirty from digging light
out of buried plots. i am nothing
but marrow and midnight, heart strings stretched taut as piano wires
in the wild, we kill the things
we love and i was no exception.
tonight the fig tree outside is heavy
bearing fruit, and i know to do nothing else
but bite into the dark.

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9th place: $100 USD goes to Dara Hine from the United States.

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A Hundred Million and Sixteen

His small hand in mine, the night surrounds us. He looks up at me, then at the stars beyond. “How many?” he asks, eyes full of awe. I hate to tell him I don’t know; that no matter how long we count, there will be more; that some questions can’t be answered. He looks up at me again. “A hundred million,” he announces, “and sixteen.” “You sure?” I laugh. His face like a miniature philosopher, he nods solemnly. And once again I am left wondering if my little brother knows the secrets of the universe.

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10th place: $100 USD goes to Tiffany Harris from the United States.

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Royal Swim

I click the wrong link and spiral into a class of third-graders debating how to save their classroom fish. Twenty tiny faces light up my screen, hands shooting upward like startled birds. Before I can leave, a girl with space buns asks if fish get lonely. The teacher’s Wi-Fi freezes. Words tumble out about my college aquarium, how bettas dance to Bach. An hour later, we’re building tiny cardboard castles, naming moss balls Ferdinand. Mrs. Peterson returns to find her students conducting a royal fish coronation.

 

I stay until the crown, cut from gold construction paper, floats perfectly.

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You may view our longlist here. This is comprised of the top 17% of entries. Please find our shortlist here. This includes the top 5% of entries.

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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.​