Every November is National Novel Writing Month. Each year, the NaNoWriMo nonprofit organization hosts an international novel-writing challenge to promote creative writing. Once again, the UT Libraries and the Judith Anderson Herbert Writing Center joined in the fun by hosting our own short story contest.
Twenty-three students dropped by our five-hour “write-in” on the evening of November 8. Tutors from the Writing Center were on hand to provide guidance and support. At the kick-off event, contestants were given a choice of three writing prompts and challenged to let their imaginations soar. They were given one week to complete and submit a short story. We received 22 submissions inspired by our prompts:
Prompt #1: Write about a god desperately trying to get their chosen hero to follow the path they set out for them.
Prompt #2: Your character has just realized the app they’ve been developing has become self-aware. How do they react?
Prompt #3: Every year, one person is sent to the moon. This year, though you hid in terror, it is your turn to enter the rocket.
We’re pleased to announce the winners:
1st Place: “The God-Maker” by Laura Dixson
2nd Place: “The Arctic Jewel” by Anonymous
3rd Place: “Mina” by Mollie Smith
Honorable mention:
- Untitled by Carrie Cheng
- Untitled by Jenna Merricks
- “An Empty Field of Withering Flowers” by Eric Yang
Congratulations to each of our writers. Click on the links, below, to read their stories.
- “To End War” by L. Nathaniel Adams
- “In the Control Room” by Anonymous
- Untitled by Anonymous
- “Overridden by Lily Beall
- “I Never Wake Up Anymore” by Hadley Blankenship
- “Love You to the Moon (And Back?)” by Laura Lee Cochran
- “Organum” by Abigail Danner
- Untitled by Thomas Ernstberger
- “God Killer” by Anna Flannery
- “In the Embrace of Cosmic Silence” by Emma Haines
- “Hard Falling” by Chris Hong
- “Fighting Fate” by Teagan Lunceford
- “T’is Only a Simple Life I Want” by Devon Marchand
- “Bravado and Bravery” by Theodore Nacher
- “Macadamia” by Caleb Napper
- “Mine” by Sarah Schuster
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