Contact Us
151 S. Campus Ave
King Library
Oxford, OH 45056
hwc@MiamiOH.edu
513-529-6100
Creative Writing Contests
Part of the Howe Writing Center’s mission is to help cultivate a culture of writing that honors a range of voices and perspectives at Miami. That’s why each semester we host a writing contest open to submissions from any Miami undergraduate or graduate student writers. A group of our student consultants lead the contest process, coming up with the prompt, planning ideas for promoting it, and ultimately judging the entries.
Contest Information
We choose a new prompt each semester, typically one that feels resonant with the campus climate at the time. During the Fall semester, the contest opens in late October and the genre of writing varies. During the Spring, the contest happens around April and, in celebration of National Poetry Month, calls for poems. Entries are judged according to adherence to the prompt, a reflective writer's note, and the piece itself. First and second prizes are awarded, along with a staff choice prize, or, occasionally, an honorable mention. Winners receive prizes plus temporary publication on our website.
Follow us on Instagram where we first announce our contests. Calls for submission will also be posted to this webpage. We hope to read your work as part of the next contest!
Finally, know that HWC consultants can support your creative writing in consultations. Simply find a consultant with a creative writing background on our staff page and schedule an appointment with them.
Fall 2025 Contests
Creative Writing Contest
Art and writing not only asks us to engage with the work before us but also recalls us to our personal experiences. For our Fall 2025 Creative Writing Contest, we ask you to spend a significant period of time engaging with a single artwork in the the Department of Art Faculty and Alumni Exhibition at the Richard and Carole Cocks Art Museum. Based on this experience, produce a “viewer’s statement,” in the form of a prose poem, that details your changing understanding of a particular piece and how this piece sheds new light on an experience of your own.
Submissions should:
- Be in the form of a prose poem
- Connect to a specific, singular artwork in the Department of Art Faculty and Alumni Exhibition
- Include a well-developed writer’s statement that explains why you chose the piece that you did. How did you approach your prose poem and connected experience? What was your biggest challenge during your writing? Be sure to include a sentence or two about how your understanding was transformational and any other details that will help us understand your work better.
- Poems may be any length, but be in one paragraph. Writer’s statements should be 250-300 words and are considered in the scoring process.
We ask all participants to refrain from using any AI tools in producing their piece.
Submit your work by October 27th!
Cash Prizes
- First: $100
- Second: $75
- Third: $50
- Staff Choice: $50
Winners announced: November 10th
Travel Writing Contest
Travel is comprised of multiple snapshot moments in which we confront new people, places, and customs. For this contest, we invite you to submit a short narrative essay (400-600 words) that focuses on a cultural interaction you’ve experienced in a country that’s different from your own. Your essay should focus on a single snapshot of interaction with a specific person, place, or cultural norm. For example, you may write about going to a particular restaurant and not only experiencing new food but also the new cultural norms associated. You should attend particularly to how this moment changed you and your understanding of the world.
This contest is open to all Miami students.
A good essay will:
✈ Use vivid and concrete imagery and descriptions to capture a specific moment.
✈ Engage the reader with personal details and tone.
✈ Integrate a reflection on the impact this moment has had on the writer.
✈ Avoid cliche and stereotypes.
✈ Exhibit signs of careful revising and proofreading.
✈ Have a word count roughly between 400-600 words.
Please, no AI-generated work.
Submit your work by November 3rd!
Cash Prizes
- First: $100
- Second: $75
- Third: $50
- Staff Choice: $50
Winners announced: November 17th
Prior Creative Writing Contest Winners
This semester’s contest invited Miami writers to produce a poem that explores both the exterior and interior of a specific Miami campus building. The prompt asked that the poems be written in the duplex poetry form (a poem patterned with repeating images and phrases).
Read their work here!
Here are this year’s winners:
- 1st Place: An Engineer's Interlude by Eva Goorskey
- 2nd Place: Duplex by Gavin Sale
- 3rd Place: For CPA By Anna Blasinski
- Staff Pick: The glass hums. . . by Gracelyn Spires
- Honorable Mention: Shiny Rust by Brian Mackintosh
Departures and Arrivals
In a joint contest with Global Initiatives, writers were asked to submit narratives about an intercultural experience--a specific arrival into or departure from a culture different from your own.
Here are this year’s winners:
- 1st prize: Down Under by Natassia York
- 2nd prize: I Look Up by Lauren Belcher
- 3rd prize: Suitcase Full of Memories: Carrying Home Across Oceans by Lirisha Tuladhar
AI and I
Our HWC Creative Writing Contest invited writers to create flash fiction pieces up to 300 words centered on the relationship between a human narrator and some form of AI.
Here are this year’s winners:
- 1st prize:Generate This Essay But Sound Human by Regan Swartz
- 2nd prize:Interrogation by Frankie Willis
- 3rd prize:Aimless and Idle by Sam Meola
- Staff Pick: Born Sexy Yesterday by Anya Revelle
Theme: Nature Plays a Role: Writing Poetry from Children's Books
- 1st Place: An Autobiography in Four Parts by Samantha Stahlhut
- 2nd Place: Nature’s Reflection by Viviana Moreno
- 3rd Place: The Lorax Sells Out! By Brian Vogt
- Staff Pick: “Can you hear the music?” by Rita Zhou-Wang
Theme: Environmental Justice Stories Drawn From Art
- 1st Place: “An Ode to the Oak” by Rhese Voisard
- 2nd Place: “Atlases” by Olive Abram
- 3rd Place: “Flying Elephant” by Olivia Voekler
- Staff Pick: “Hitchhiker” by Lorna Wodzak
Miami student writers submitted a piece of writing inspired by works found in the University Libraries archives!
1st Prize: “Untited” by Claire Hampton
2nd Prize: “Reflection” by Adeline Roux
3rd Prize: “Becoming You” by Anna Boyer
Staff Choice: “To Know” by Julia Quigley
Miami student writers submitted a piece of writing evoking autumn, but with a catch: they could not use certain words often associated with the season!
1st Prize: “Demeter in 5 Stages (Acceptance)” by Anna Boyer
2nd Prize: “The Radiator” by Caroline Laird
3rd Prize: “The Editor and The Poet” by Jessica Miller
Staff Choice: “Drifting through the Grove” by Jacob Bitonte
Miami student writers submitted a piece of creative non-fiction when luck or chance played a role in their lives.
First Prize: Meredith Perkins, Clovers
Second Prize: Sophia Rakic, Tablić
Third Prize: Olivia Kelly, Canip and Pain
Staff Choice: JoAnn Su, Doubt and Recovery/From The Other Side
Miami writers explored through poetry the multiple ways colors intersect with their lives.
First Prize: Olivia Triance, Seasonal Affective Disorder
Second Prize and Staff Choice: Catarina Palmer, Protoanomaly
Third Prize: Ashlee Flora, The Color I Once Assigned to You
Theme: Photo Flash Fiction
Miami student writers submitted a piece of fiction where they used their pen as a camera to give us a slice of life, a flash of fancy, a moment of misery, or an instance of insight based upon one of several provided photos.
First Prize: Em UpDyke, The Family Flowerbed
Second Prize: Sam Fouts, Howling Bones
Third Prize: Dalanie Beach, Liminal Space
Staff Choice: Valerie Senkowski, Dramamine
Honorable Mention: Charles Xie, Travelers
Theme: Hope and Rebirth
Miami student writers submitted poetry that reflected on what “Hope and Rebirth” meant to them, especially in that current moment, amid COVID-19 during Spring semester.
First prize: Paige Hartenburg, "Flowers for Lily"
Second prize: Sarah Zimmerman, "When Fears are Validated, Progress Halts"
Staff choice: Alfredo Ascanio, "I Crossed a Bridge"
Theme: Here and Now
Miami student writers submitted creative nonfiction pieces that considered how issues of tolerance, inclusion, antiracism, social inequality, or COVID-19 have impacted them personally.
Co-first prize: Aiyana White, (untitled)
Co-first prize: Ethan Maguire, "These Walls"
Second prize: Gabe Porter, "Sanitize"
Staff choice: Lauren Racela, (untitled)
Theme: What We Leave Behind: Sustainability and Disposability
Miami student writers submitted poems about environmental impact, sustainability, and "what we leave behind" both materially and personally.
First prize: Alexander Benedict, "anthem for uneaten candycanes" and "American Doll"
Second prize: Brianna Porter, "They Told Me The World Was Dying"
Honorable mention: Hannah Stohry, "The Sorting Process"
Theme: Change of Seasons
Miami student writers submitted fiction, nonfiction, and poetry focused on how we experience the world around us when the seasons change, and also on how people, relationships, and cultures change, too.
First prize: T. Mesnick, "Pumpkin Patch"
Second prize: Alexander Benedict, "Fall as an Unsure Haircut"
Howe Writing Center
2022 Writing Program Certificate of Excellence
