Good day, our lovely readers and writers across the globe! We received more submissions than ever for this year’s annual Poetry & Prose Contest, but the results are in, the winners have been notified, and we are now excited to share the news with everyone! The finalists, in no particular order, are as follows:

For Poetry:

“Trinkets” by Tiffany Norman

“1995 Dixie Youth All Star Baseball Tournament” by Cody Smith

“Sunday to Tuesday” by Cody Smith

“Arachne” by Emily Cinquemani

“Brief Shelter” by Emily Cinquemani

“Upon Being Disturbed at 3:00 a.m. on An Otherwise Uneventful Saturday Night” by Jarek Jarvis

For Prose:

“Bolivian Love Stories” by Camila Cossio

“Fat Girl Education” by Karen Fischer

“Within the Walls” by Dania Mahmoud

This year’s contest was judged by UH Creative Writing faculty members Martha Serpas for poetry, and Alex Parsons for prose. All finalists showed immense talent, but the runners-up, earning themselves publication in the Spring 2015 issue of Glass Mountain, are:

“Upon Being Disturbed at 3:00 a.m. on An Otherwise Uneventful Saturday Night” by Jarek Jarvis (Poetry)

“Bolivian Love Stories” by Camila Cossio (Prose)

Here is what our judges had to say:

“‘Upon Being Disturbed at 3:00 a.m. on An Otherwise Uneventful Saturday Night’ creates a strong character through an idiosyncratic voice mixing ominous suspense and humor. A dramatic monologue of simplicity and depth.” – Martha Serpas

“’Bolivian Love Stories’ showcases a confident, funny storyteller any reader will love, the kind who leans in close, arches her eyes, grins mischievously, and says, ‘Now I will tell you what really happened.’ You are hooked because you know you will get the truth, every irreverent, awkward, sad part of it.” – Alex Parsons

Congratulations to our runners-up!

Finally, the moment we’ve all been waiting for! The winners, and recipients of a $100 cash prize, free registration for this year’s Boldface Conference for Emerging Writers, and publication in the Spring 2015 issue of Glass Mountain are:

*drumroll*

“Arachne” by Emily Cinquemani (Poetry)

“Within the Walls” by Dania Mahmoud (Prose)

Some comments from our judges:

“’Arachne’ proceeds via a confident voice. Its lyrical command of the line and ease of rhetorical profession evidences an already accomplished poet.” – Martha Serpas

“’Within the Walls’ is wonderfully arresting for its lyric prose and the author’s success in celebrating our shared humanity even in those very moments when, bound by misfortune, we are most likely to deny it. The story announces a generous talent with a keen sense of who we can aspire to be even in this imperfect world.” – Alex Parsons

Congratulations and standing ovations to our winners! And as always, thank you to our judges!

For all you writers out there still itching to see your name in print, don’t forget the deadline to submit your work to our Spring 2015 issue is March 6th. So get those fingers typing.

Happy writing!