the weed that grows in the sidewalk crack by Abigail Matson from Eras
Based in Bethesda, Maryland, United States
Winners of WJ's 23-24 Creative Writing Contest
To read the winning pieces, click on the yellow buttons to the right
Congratulations to our winners! First place winners will be published in this year's magazine! Pieces went through two rounds of judging. Final winners were selected by professional writers from the Bethesda Writing Center. Judge's Bios: Poetry: Emily Holland (they/she) is a genderqueer lesbian writer. Their poems appear or are forthcoming in publications including HAD, Shenandoah, DIALOGIST, Little Patuxent Review, lstw, and Black Warrior Review. They are the author of the chapbook Lineage (dancing girl press) and the recipient of multiple fellowships from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. She is currently the editor of Poet Lore, an adjunct professor at GWU, and the chair of OutWrite, DC’s LGBTQIA+ literary festival. For more, visit their website: emily-holland.com. Contact her at emily.holland@writer.org for any questions regarding Poet Lore. Short Story: Hannah Grieco is a writer and editor based in Washington, DC. She edits novels and prose collections for Alan Squire Publishing and serves as Editor-in-Chief of the ASP Bulletin, the press’s online literary magazine. She edited the anthologies And If That Mockingbird Don’t Sing and Already Gone. Her work can be read in a variety of publications, including The Washington Post, Al Jazeera, The Rumpus, Poet Lore, Fairy Tale Review, and more. She teaches writing at American University and The Writer’s Center. Find her online at www.hgrieco.com and on Twitter/IG @writesloud. Essay: Amy Freeman is a freelance writer with bylines in The Washington Post, Parents.com, Santa Fe Writing Project, HuffPost, Furious Gravity, and elsewhere. She is Development Director at The Writer’s Center.