Springfed Writing Contest
2025 Springfed Arts Writers Contest will accept submissions by email from February 15, 2025, through April 15, 2025
Poetry & Prose Prizes
1st Prize $150
2nd Prize $100
3rd Prize $75
RULES: This Members Only contest is funded and sponsored by Springfed Arts. Submission Guidelines: Free submission for current Springfed Arts members only. No name on poetry or prose submission pages. Prose (prose includes fiction, nonfiction & memoir) must be double-spaced 10 pages or less. (An excerpt of a longer piece may be used.) A cover page should include your name, address, phone, email, and title of piece. Poetry should include 3 poems no more than 5 total pages, with name, address, phone, email, and titles of poems on cover sheet. All submissions must be typewritten. All submissions must be emailed to info@springfed.org as a Word Document. Join or renew a membership online. There is no contest application form. Your membership will suffice. Deadline: must be emailed by midnight of April 15, 2023. Entries must be unpublished. Manuscripts that do not follow the above rules will be discarded. Your manuscript is non-returnable. Winners will be announced in the May newsletter and will be invited to read on a date and location to be announced.
Our poetry judge is TBA. Our prose judge is TBA.
Springfed Arts entrusts preliminary judges who cull through all submissions. We send 15 finalist poem entries to the poetry judge and 5 finalist prose entries to the prose judge.
Email Contest Submission to: info@springfed.org
Winners read their winning entries – date and location to be announced. Coffee and cookie kiosk. Free and open to the public.
Springfed Arts 2024 Poetry Finalists
1st place Like a Sheet in the Wind by alinda dickinson wasner
2nd place Chosen by Rhonda Sider Edgington
3rd place Sometimes by Jeremy Proehl
Honorable Mention Reunion by Jane Bridges
Honorable Mention Two Hours by Kathleen Fulgenzi
Poetry judged by Dorianne Laux
Springfed Arts 2024 Prose Finalists
1st Place Why I Set Fire to the Cabin by Hugh Culik
2nd Place Real by John Jeffire
3rd Place Uncle Greg’s Camp by Edward Morin
Honorable Mention Blind Justice by Liza Young
Honorable Mention The Limits by Nancy Shattuck
Prose judged by Jacquelyn Mitchard
There were 46 total contest entrants (28 poets and 18 prose writers).
Winners read their winning entries, Tuesday, September 17, 2024, 7pm at Unity of Royal Oak, 2500 Crooks Road, Royal Oak, MI 48073. Coffee and cookie kiosk. Free and open to the public.
Springfed Arts 2023 Poetry Finalists
1st place If We Look by Melinda LePere
2nd place Love Enough for Now by Alexander Payne Morgan
3rd place Like Learning a New Language by Linda Sienkiewicz
Honorable Mention Lake Qarun by Nadia Ibrashi
Honorable Mention When We Talk About the Movie, Casablanca, My Father Remembers Every Line… by Linda Nemec Foster
Poetry judged by Eric Torgersen
Springfed Arts 2023 Prose Finalists
1st Place My Father’s Hat by Nadia Ibrashi
2nd Place The Way I See It by Lauryn Hugener
3rd Place Erstwhile by Brian Drumm
Honorable Mention Learning to Ride by Mary Minock
Honorable Mention Cinderella Swing by Paul L. Bancel
Prose judged by John Jeffire
There were 25 total contest entrants (12 poets and 13 prose writers).
Springfed Arts 2022 Poetry Finalists
1st place February by Patricia Barnes
2nd place La Traviata at the Vienna Opera House by Diana Dinverno
3rd place The Coldest Month by Derek Eugene Daniels
Honorable Mention Family Snapshots by Kathleen M. Friedrichs
Honorable Mention Of mines, and fingers and pies by Michelle Morouse
Poetry judged by Dunya Mikhail
Springfed Arts 2022 Prose Finalists
1st Place Rings by John Jeffire
2nd Place Weather Bad Enough to Keep You Indoors by Phillip Sterling
3rd Place Japanese Cemetery by Deborah Ann Percy
Honorable Mention This Time by Elissa Driker
Honorable Mention Alone in the Woods by Michelle Morouse
Prose judged by Linda Sienkiewicz
There were 38 total contest entrants (22 poets and 16 prose writers).
Springfed Arts 2021 Poetry Finalists
1st place The Second Worst Thing by Linda Sienkiewicz
2nd place Mediterranean by Nadia Ibrashi
3rd place My mother listens to her kitchen radio in Detroit in 1955 by Michelle Morouse
Honorable Mention We Are Driving by Lonnie Hull DuPont
Honorable Mention The Gutting by Jeremy Proehl
Honorable Mention Petals (Haiku) by Derek Eugene Daniels
Poetry judged by Kathleen McGookey
Springfed Arts 2021 Prose Finalists
1st Place Broke by John Jeffire
2nd Place Daffodils Are Not Wildflowers by Deborah Ann Percy
3rd Place Bearing the Standard: Reflections from a Wannabe Butter Thief by Anne Forgrave
Honorable Mention My Patient, My Aunt by Nadia Ibrashi
Honorable Mention NEXUS: a novel by Kristin Bartley Lenz
Prose judged by Jacquelyn Mitchard
There were 63 total contest entrants (26 poets and 37 prose writers).
Springfed Arts 2020 Poetry Finalists
1st place The Fallen-Aways by Mary Minock
2nd place Someone Who Believes in You by Jeffrey Hermann
3rd place Glory to Him by Nadia Ibrashi
Honorable Mention The Singer Machine by Randy K. Schwartz
Honorable Mention Inland Lake Weeds of Michigan by Michelle Morouse
Poetry judged by Cecilia Woloch
Springfed Arts 2020 Prose Finalists
1st Place Revelation at Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari by Diana U. Dinverno
2nd Place Right Front Corner by Michelle Morouse
3rd Place Salt by John Jeffire
Honorable Mention Call Me Maxie! by Phillip Sterling
Honorable Mention Elm in the Desert by Harah Frost
Prose judged by Anne-Marie Oomen
There were 44 total contest entrants (24 poets and 20 prose writers).
Springfed Arts 2019 Poetry Finalists
1st place Cobalt by Alinda Dickinson Wasner
2nd place If Detroit Were a Woman by K. Michelle Moran
3rd place Driving to Gravelly Point by Randy K. Schwartz
Honorable Mention Porkobello’s by James Joseph Macmillen
Honorable Mention California Dream by Linda Nemec Foster
Honorable Mention Good Night’s Sleep by Ginny Grush
Poetry judged by Dennis Hinrichsen
Springfed Arts 2019 Prose Finalists
1st Place The Door Swings Open by Kristin Bartley Lenz
2nd Place Why Do People Tell Me Things? by John Jeffire
3rd Place Unlikely Gifts by Cynthia Jalynski
Honorable Mention Sunday Afternoon at the Bookstore Cafe by Harah Frost
Prose judged by Kelly Fordon
There were 51 total contest entrants (29 poets and 22 prose writers).
Springfed Arts 2018 Poetry Finalists
1st place Uff da by Kevin Griffin
2nd place Coal Run, Kentucky by Liza Young
3rd place Berries by Susan Knoppow
Honorable Mention Borders by Alinda Wasner
Honorable Mention A Traffic Intersection Falls in Love by James Joseph MacMillen
Poetry judged by Terry Blackhawk
Springfed Arts 2018 Prose Finalists
1st place Paris (an excerpt) by John Jeffire
2nd Place Bite by Melissa Grunow
3rd Place Magic Shift by Diana U. Dinverno
Honorable Mention Liking Each Other the Same by Mary Robertson
Honorable Mention Her Name Was Patricia by Dinah Lee Brinson
Prose judged by Keith Taylor
There were 48 total contest entrants (32 poets and 16 prose writers).
Springfed Arts 2017 Poetry Finalists
1st place The Mounting Evidence Against Monotheism by Jeffrey Herman
2nd place How a Poem Keeps a Poet by Melinda LePere
3rd place Firefly by Susan Knoppow
Honorable Mention Say You Walk Away by Jenifer DeBellis
Honorable Mention Drinking Alone with Li-Bo by Mary Schmitt
Honorable Mention At Holocaust Museum, Moscow 2015 by Alinda Wasner
Honorable Mention The Darkness by K. Michelle Moran
Poetry judged by Robert Fanning
Springfed Arts 2017 Prose Finalists
1st place Last Resort by Phillip Sterling
2nd Place Tulip by Karen Simpson
3rd Place The Telegram by Diana Dinverno
Honorable Mention The Sinner of Timbuktu by Nadia Ibrashi
Honorable Mention The Kitten and the Goddess by Alexander Morgan
Prose judged by Steve Amick
There were 67 total contest entrants (41 poets and 26 prose writers).
Springfed Arts 2016 Writing Contest Finalists
Poetry Finalists 2016
1st place Swings by Susan Knoppow
2nd place Ornament by Caroline Maun
3rd place A Subtle Passing by Mary Stebbins Tait
Honorable Mention Spiderweb by Patricia Barnes
Honorable Mention A Taxonomy of Every Little Thing by Jeffrey Hermann
Poetry judged by Matthew Olzmann
Prose Finalists 2016
1st place The Trouble with Betty by Bobbie Crawford
2nd place The Curtain by Paul Bancel
3rd place The Prisoner by Nadia Ibrashi
Honorable Mention Factory Outlet by Phillip Sterling
Honorable Mention Coed (an excerpt from a memoir) by Mary Minock
Prose judged by Eric Jerome Dickey
There were 51 total contest entrants (34 poets and 17 prose writers).
Springfed Arts 2015 Writing Contest
Poetry Winners
1st place Ann’s Cup by Alex Morgan
2nd place Ampersand by Mary Butler
3rd place Sunday in the Park, Claire, Michigan by Sophia Rivkin
Honorable Mention:
Lost in Song by Mary Minock
For Janet: Four Questions and Reflections by Greg Loselle
Poems judged by Wyn Cooper
Prose Winners
1st place Maybe A Bite or Two by John Jeffire
2nd place Always Wear Your Boots by Liza Young
3rd place Old Fish by Phillip Sterling
Honorable Mention:
Sacred Silence by Jenifer Smythe DeBellis
Take Me by Paul L. Bancel
Prose judged by Irina Reyn
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Springfed Arts 2014 Writing Contest Finalists
Prose finalists
1st place Rooms of Wonder by Karen Simpson
2nd place The Latrine by Alexander P. Morgan
3rd place The Gaslight by Ellen Halter
Honorable Mention
A Brief Vacation by Maria A. Costantini
The Flowers by John Jeffire
Prose judged by Jack Driscoll
Poetry Winners
1st place After Our Country Grandmother Died by Mary Schmitt
2nd place In The Henry Ford Museum Archives by Mary Minock
3rd place Cicada by Sophia Rivkin
Honorable Mention
Our Lady of the Rosary by Ken Meisel
Damballah by Melinda Weinstein
Can Words Create or Define Reality During Storms? by Donna Vinstra
Poems judged by Jim Daniels
There were 66 total contest entrants (43 poets and 23 prose writers).
Springfed Arts 2013 Writing Contest Finalists
Prose finalists
1st place The Fetishist by Nadia Ibrashi
2nd place Excerpt from River Rouge by John Jeffire
3rd place Bones in a Box by Alexander Morgan
Honorable Mention The Right Thing by Linda Sienkiewicz
Honorable Mention The John Holland Story by Jon Zech
Prose judged by Robert Olmstead
Poetry Winners
1st place Florida by Terry Blackhawk
2nd place Once in a Blue Moon by Elizabeth Mitchell
3rd place Prayer for Poojah by Nadia Ibrashi
Honorable Mention Monarchs by Kevin Griffin
Honorable Mention If It Wasn’t for Snow by Liza Young
Poems judged by Denise Duhamel
There were 75 total contest entrants (48 poets and 27 prose writers).
Springfed Arts 2012 Writing Contest Finalists
Poetry winners
1st place: The Two by Christine Rhein
2nd place: Going to the Grave of Son House by Randy K. Schwartz
3rd place: The Woman of a Thousand Worries by Patricia Barnes
Honorable Mentions:
Joan of Arc by Mary Schmitt
A Small Girl by Lucinda Sabino
(Poetry contest judged by E. Ethelbert Miller)
Prose winners
1st place: Lorna in Kinshasa by Jon Zech
2nd place: Renaissance Man by Lori Eaton
3rd place: Big In The Bars by Carol Carpenter
Honorable Mentions:
Gut Wrenched in Barnstown by Linda K. Sienkiewicz
Before You Can Change Your Mind by Jenifer DeBellis
(Prose contest judged by Michael Zadoorian)
Springfed Arts 2013 Writing Contest Finalists
Prose finalists
1st place The Fetishist by Nadia Ibrashi
2nd place Excerpt from River Rouge by John Jeffire
3rd place Bones in a Box by Alexander Morgan
Honorable Mention The Right Thing by Linda Sienkiewicz
Honorable Mention The John Holland Story by Jon Zech
Prose judged by Robert Olmstead
Poetry Winners
1st place Florida by Terry Blackhawk
2nd place Once in a Blue Moon by Elizabeth Mitchell
3rd place Prayer for Poojah by Nadia Ibrashi
Honorable Mention Monarchs by Kevin Griffin
Honorable Mention If It Wasn’t for Snow by Liza Young
Poems judged by Denise Duhamel
There were 75 total contest entrants (48 poets and 27 prose writers).
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