⭐ Thank you to everyone who sent work for this year’s prize, all finalists, winners, and our amazing judges! The results are below and winning pieces are available in Issue #16 ~ Summer 2024!! ⭐
2024 Winners:
Winner:
Jaime Gill for “Things To Talk To Jim About”
Here’s what Juliana Lamy had to say about “Things to Talk To Jim About”:
This stunning story is a brief masterclass in pacing and natural characterization. Each event occurs precisely when it means to, each character emerges with their own network of faults and feelings intact. The revelations in this piece feel inevitable, yet strike with the oblique, off-center shock of the surprising. There are beautiful moments of language here that, at certain points, seem to be all that stands between the reader and an emotional totaling.
First Runner-Up:
Ryan Mattern for “Veer”
Winner:
Randy Bynum for “Electric Eclectic Strong”
Here’s what Matt Mason had to say about “Electric Eclectic Strong”:
This poem is a beautiful celebration of music and radio. With great use of sound and language (musically put together!), it deals with frustrations that music can’t eliminate but can give a respite from so that we can gather ourselves back together and be able to deal with the madnesses of the world. With a conversational style, it draws you in like a friend’s voice and holds you to the last, gorgeous lines.
First Runner-Up:
Genevieve N. Williams for “A Beginners Guide to Yoga”
Winner:
Frankie Concepcion for “Origin Stories”
Here’s what Teri Youmans had to say about “Origin Stories”:
What I loved about “Origin Stories” is that it revolves around a particular experience of childhood, but through that experience the writer effortlessly explores relationships with beauty, with the maternal, with spirits, with fear, with longing and inheritance. I also appreciated the strong sense of physical place in the story, but even more so, the child struggling to understand her place in that world. All of this happens as an unfolding, rather than a forcing.
I felt the invisible cuts on my skin made by the sharp grasses, the grip of the mother’s too firm a hand and the fearful child’s reckoning with the ways beauty can lead to one’s demise. Each reading brought new pleasures.
First Runner-Up:
Kelsey Ferrell for “Eloise”
Honorable Mentions Based on Editor Selections:
“Echocardiogram” by Olivia Torres (Fiction)
“How to Be Made by Men, 1981” by Anne Falkowski (Creative Nonfiction)
“Night Sweats” by Molly Sturdevant (Poetry)
“Beacons” by Jamie L. Smith (Poetry)
Our congratulations goes out to all these fine folks for their amazing writing and to the winners for snagging those beautiful jars of honey!
2024 Finalists:
- “Variations on Kubler-Ross When You’re 25 and Your Boyfriend Dies” by Amy Lerman
- “Denaturalization” by Marina Kraiskaya
- “A Beginners Guide to Yoga” by Genevieve N. Williams
- “Beacons” by Jamie L. Smith
- “Night Sweats” by Molly Sturdevant
- “Blue Heron” by Stelios Mormoris
- “Shards of Howard Street” by Luke Koesters
- “Western Mount” by Madalyn Hochendoner
- “Poem About Maggots” by Matthew Pitman
- “Electric Eclectic Strong” by Randy Bynum
- The Day the Bird Fell by Anne Falkowski
- Spring Ephemerals: Bloodroot, Virginia Bluebells, and Spring Beauties by Susanna Byrd
- Origin Stories by Frankie Concepcion
- Eloise by Kelsey Ferrell
- How to Be Made by Men, 1981 by Anne Falkowski
- Please Tune Into Another Station by Amy Cook
- The Girl Who Held the Moon by Kathleen Zamora
- The Wonder Pot by T.G. Franti
- The Fiery Five by Chad W. Lutz
- Echocardiogram by Olivia Torres
- Things To Talk To Jim About by Jaime Gill
- Veer by Ryan Mattern
Contest Details:
Four to six finalists in fiction and creative nonfiction and ten finalists in poetry will be sent to our guest judges who will select a winner and runner-up. The winning entry in each of the three categories will receive $500, publication in our summer 2024 issue, and a jar of honey from a Midwest apiary. The runner-up in each category will receive $75 and publication. Other finalists may also be invited to be published.
The judges this year are…
Poetry: Nebraska State Poet, Matt Mason
Fiction: Juliana Lamy
Creative Nonfiction: Teri Youmans
The contest fee is $15. The deadline is April 15th. Finalists will be announced in May and winners in June. Response time on contest submissions may be up to six months depending on the submission date. Thank you in advance for your patience. The submission portal can be found on Submittable.
All other submission guidelines are the same as our regular publication guidelines. We will not consider previously published work and request that all personal identifiable information is removed from the submitted manuscript. For a comprehensive set of guidelines and genre specific details, please visit our general submission page. Finalists will be selected by our current editorial team.
For info about our 2023 contest, please visit the 2023 HoneyBee Prize results.
More about this year’s judges:
Poetry:
Matt Mason is the Nebraska State Poet and has run poetry workshops in Botswana, Romania, Nepal, and Belarus for the U.S. State Department. His poetry has appeared in The New York Times and Matt has received a Pushcart Prize as well as fellowships from the Academy of American Poets and the Nebraska Arts Council. His work can be found in Rattle, Poet Lore, Prairie Schooner, and hundreds of other publications. Mason’s 5th book, Rock Stars, was published by Button Poetry in 2023. Find more at: https://matt.midverse.com/
Read our exclusive interview with Matt here.
Fiction:
Juliana Lamy is a Haitian fiction writer from South Florida. She received her Bachelor’s degree in History & Literature from Harvard University. While there, she was also the recipient of the university’s Le Baron Russell Brigg’s Prize for Undergraduate Fiction, as well as the Gordon Parks Essay Prize for Nonfiction. She is the author of You Were Watching from the Sand (Red Hen Press, 2023). She is currently a fiction candidate at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She really is 6”2, she swears.
Read our exclusive interview with Juliana here.
Creative Nonfiction:
TERI YOUMANS is a fourth generation Floridian. She received her BFA in poetry at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and her MFA at Vermont College of Fine Arts. She’s published two poetry collections. Her first, Dirt Eaters was chosen for the University of Central Florida’s contemporary poetry series and was published by the University Press of Florida. Her second book, Becoming Lyla Dore, was published by Red Hen Press. Teri is the recipient of a Nebraska Arts Fellowship and has been awarded residencies at Millay Arts, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and the Hambidge Center. She has taught in Creighton University’s MFA Program, at the University of North Florida, and in the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s low-res MFA program. She is currently at work on a memoir about alligator hunting, generational abuse, and dancing with the devil. Teri lives in Jacksonville, Florida.
Read our exclusive interview with Teri here.