Seven acclaimed writers judged nearly 100 fiercely competitive entries to determine the winners of Mason Creative Writing's annual Spring Writing Contests. Seven gifted Mason student-writers were awarded a total of $7000!
Here are the results with judges' comments:
GMU Rinehart Fiction Award | $1,000 — Judge: Constance Sayers
Winner: Eunice Tan “Trap of the Blossom”
“The historical details are beautifully rendered and the language throughout is exquisite in this excerpt from a novel, set during the 1945 Japanese occupation of Malaya. The story centers on Song Er, a young girl grappling with both the brutal realities of war and the tarnished legacy of her mother. The author has crafted a protagonist who is vividly realized from the very first sentence. The piece distinguished itself through its ambitious scope, its sophisticated treatment of a difficult historical period, and the emotional resonance of its storytelling.”
Runner up: Drew Hunter “Funeral Dresses, Sundaes and Lying Eulogies”
“A beautifully layered and reflective story about redemption and grief. Set during the funeral of Clara Davis’s parents, the narrative deftly captures the wide range of emotions Clara experiences as long-standing tensions quietly surface. Clara’s poignant and, at times, humorous observations provide moments of levity to the weightier themes of loss and forgiveness. I found myself unable to forget this story and its characters.”
GMU Rinehart Nonfiction Award | $1,000 — Judge: Sean Murphy
Winner: Martheaus Perkins “Instructions for Repairing a Robot Black Boy”
“Successful pieces of nonfiction convey a place or person (sometimes both). Exceptional pieces of nonfiction render a feeling, and we’re able to better understand the writer or what they are writing about (often both). A great piece of nonfiction manages to express the unique perspective of the individual writing while connecting us to ideas or energies that exist beyond the words. “Instructions for Repairing a Black Boy” convincingly relays a deeply personal story, but tells us things about relationships and the messy work of managing them. This piece utilizes dialogue, humor, and a winning combination of observation and vulnerability to speak larger truths about the world and our place in it. The narrative strategy of a sardonic instruction manual deftly grants a distinct perception more universal import, and the result feels more like an invitation than a declaration. Work that will stand up to (if not oblige) repeated readings should challenge, delight, even surprise. “Instructions for Repairing a Black Boy” never feels safe, or calculated, or designed to solicit approval."
Runner up: Connor Harding “Man vs. Food”
"This piece weaves in reporting, like field notes from the trenches of warfare (in this case, the fascinating, odd, occasionally very popular and lucrative world of competitive eating) to cannily illustrate how something as ostensibly simple as eating can be—and very often is, for so many of us—actually quite…complicated. In the process, we get some history, some sociology, and some deeply affecting writing."
GMU Rinehart Poetry Award | $1,000 — Judge: Reginald Harris
Winner: Scott Hovdey “why did the chicken cross the road?”
"I appreciated this poem for its queer, 21st-century take on an incredibly old joke. Although starting with erotically tinged humor, it gets progressively darker and more serious, before finally turning to (on?) the reader with a question of its own. An example of poetry’s ability to shine a clarifying light on even cliches or something overly familiar like jokes, sights, or phrases."
Runner Up: Rob Bianco “IV (Excerpt from a longer poem, Super Nothing)”
"I enjoyed the mystery here, and how the meaning of the text is replicated by the work itself, causing the reader to be curious about what’s happening in the always increasing ‘blank space’ of the poem."
Virginia Downs EcoPoetry Award | $1,000 — Judge: Elizabeth Bradfield
Winner: Nick Ritter “Cattail”
"This poem surprised me from start to finish in ways that felt less like jolts and more like awakenings, realignments, and opportunities. Connecting personal loss, the pandemic (and the loss of normalcy it ushered), and the more-than-human world's ongoing, "Cattail" moves in measured sections. This poem's calm exterior and patient gaze leads to an ending that acknowledges the dailiness of loss (what to do with those shoes?) and the strangeness of crisis ("near/succinct motion"--"near" being everything)."
Runner Up: Abigail Mills “In DC on the Last Sunday in March”
"Through this poem, I see the annual celebration of cherry blossoms in an utterly new way, with Barbie-pink quinceanera gowns, with an acknowledgement of adjacent waste. That last line--"this is our gift to trample and cherish"—is haunting. What will we decide, the larger we? Not "or" but "and." The poem recognizes that we will do both: celebrate and ruin, as we humans seem to always do."
Mary Roberts Rinehart Fiction Award (MFA Students Only) | Winner $750 ; Runner-Up: $250 — Judge: Steve Almond
Winner: Martheaus Perkins “Vodou on Lily Forest Drive”
"Never read anything like it, a remarkable, kaleidoscopic, absolutely gutting portrait of a police shooting told from multiple perspectives. It captures the chaos wrought by America’s militarized police state, both from the perspective of the cops and those in the community whose lives can be shattered with no warning. This is important work—a story about violent men and risen spirits that is properly haunting."
Runner Up: Connor Harding “Stumped”
Mary Roberts Rinehart Nonfiction Award (MFA Students Only) |Winner $750 ; Runner-Up: $250 — Judge: Paul Lisicky
Winner: Rob Bianco “Saturn Devouring His Son: In Situ”
"At the heart of “Saturn Devouring His Son: In Situ” lies an idea: “Paintings become a language themselves, responding to questions not written.” With an exacting eye, the writer unearths those questions, thinking not only about the entanglements of representation but appetite—which is synonymous with destruction. Along the way, the writer brings an iconic work to life for those who already know Goya’s painting and those who might be thinking about art for the first time."
Runner Up: Taylor Schaefer “Range”
Mark Craver Poetry Award (MFA Students Only) | Winner $750 ; Runner-Up: $250 — Judge: Tonee Mae Moll
Winner: Katey Funderburgh “IN A GAS STATION BATHROOM”
“This poem does everything that I hope a poem does when I sit with it: it’s human & affecting without being saccharine. It surprises me. It shares a moment in a way that tells us why the moment matters to the speaker & characters (and why it should matter to us). The language is honest and sincere, but not meant to be goading. Beyond all that though, I kept thinking about this poem after I read it; it stuck to me. I kept it in my mind as I went about my life. I connected it to other poems and poets I love. I spent time reflecting on why I kept thinking about it, and how (and why) it spoke to me. I let it live with me for a while, dwelt in its images and moments, admired them, and let them affect me.”
Runner Up: Maya Miracle Gudapati “Idaho”
May 07, 2025