Click here for contest rules and full bios of judges.
Seven award-winning writers have been selected as judges for this year's Spring Writing Contests. They are:
GMU Rinehart Fiction Award | Constance Sayers
Constance Sayers is the author of the #1 Amazon best-selling novel A Witch in Time (Redhook/Hachette), as well as The Ladies of the Secret Circus (Redhook/Hachette), which received a starred review from Publishers Weekly.
GMU Rinehart Nonfiction Award | Sean Murphy
Sean Murphy is the founder of the non-profit 1455 Lit Arts and directs the Center for Story at Shenandoah University. His third collection of poetry, Kinds of Blue, and This Kind of Man, his first collection of short fiction, both published in 2024.
GMU Rinehart Poetry Award | Reginald Harris
Reginald Harris won the 2012 Cave Canem / Northwestern University Press Poetry Prize for Autogeography. His first book, 10 Tongues, was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award and the ForeWord Book of the Year.
Virginia Downs Ecopoetry Award | Elizabeth Bradfield
Elizabeth Bradfield’s seven books include Interpretive Work, which won the Audre Lorde Prize in Lesbian Poetry, Toward Antarctica, and the co-created Cascadia Field Guide: Art, Ecology, Poetry, winner of a Pacific Northwest Book Award and a ForeWord Indies Gold Medal.
Mary Roberts Rinehart Fiction Award (MFA Students Only) | Steve Almond
Steve Almond is the author of a dozen books, including the New York Times bestsellers Candyfreak and Against Football. His first novel, Which Brings Me to You (co-written with Julianna Baggott), was made into a major motion picture starring Lucy Hale.
Mary Roberts Rinehart Nonfiction Award (MFA Students Only) | Paul Lisicky
Paul Lisicky is the author of seven books including Song So Wild and Blue: A Life with the Music of Joni Mitchell, Later: My Life at the Edge of the World (one of NPR’s Best Books of 2020), The Narrow Door (a New York Times Editors’ Choice and a Finalist for the Randy Shilts Award), Unbuilt Projects, The Burning House, Famous Builder, and Lawnboy.
Mark Craver Poetry Award (MFA Students Only) | Tonee Mae Moll
Tonee Mae Moll is a queer & trans writer & educator in Baltimore. Her debut memoir, Out of Step, won the 2018 Lambda Literary Award and was featured that year on the American Library Association’s annual list of notable LGBTQ+ books.