It’s time
Like our prompt phrase, the headline for this post can have a lot of meanings. First, “it’s time” to make our announcements. But also, you know what contributed to the success of a lot of these essays? That’s right: “it’s time.” The best seasoning for an essay is time. You have to let them marinate a little bit, process what you mean, what you know, what it meant to you and what you want it to mean to your readers. If you find yourself writing without this knowledge, give yourself a little more time with that essay, and write one that’s cooked all the way. And now, I think that’s enough cooking metaphors. It’s time for the rest of this post.
The judges’ results are in and tallied and we’re ready to announce the winners of our Super Challenge! Winners, you’ll also get an email confirming your details so that we can send your prizes to you. But whether you won or ran-up (is that a word?) or didn’t place this round, you made it this far and you should consider taking your feedback and finding a great home for your essay where the world can read it—even if that’s just on your blog (shoot us a link, we’d love to give other YeahWriters a chance to see!).
We hope you’ve had as much fun writing as we had coming up with the prompts. It’s always a challenge to come up with ideas flexible enough to give you the room to express yourself creatively but tight enough to challenge and inspire you. Let us know how we’re doing!
Once again, anything that went right is entirely due to our admin team’s untiring work behind the scenes, and anything you hate is probably my fault. Unless it’s your feedback, because hating feedback for a month or two and then sighing and working with it is every writer’s prerogative and destiny.
Fanfare, please…
I’ll quit chattering. You’re here to find out who the winners are. So with no further ado, here we go:
First Place
$200
Shelby Van Pelt
A Conversation with the Mylar Balloon That’s Been Floating on the Ceiling of My Living Room for the Last Three Months
Second Place
$125
Melinda Hagenson
Saving What Matters
Third Place
$75
Kate Macolini
Confessional
Honorable Mention:
- Madeleine Pelletier – When Dreams Don’t Come True
- Michelle Hanley – We Weren’t There to Save Them
Runners-up:
(in alphabetical order)
- CG Aubrey
- Cindy Cook DeRuyter
- D.A. Lockett
- Johannah Simon
- Frances Turner
Congratulations again to everyone who entered. Hopefully you’re finding your feedback useful and relevant! Personal essays are some of the hardest work to receive feedback on because it feels so, well, personal. If you’re not ready for your feedback yet, try walking away from it right now. Set a reminder and look at it again in a month or so, or get a trusted reader to help you make the connections or see if it’s fair, even if you don’t like it or disagree with a decision or suggestion. In the meantime…
Wait, wait, there’s more!
Writers, if you don’t have your feedback, please send us an email at superchallenge@yeahwrite.me, ’cause that email should have reached you on Wednesday.
Now that this round of the competition is over, you’re free to post your work anywhere on the Internet you like, or take our judges’ suggestions and rework your submission to send on to other venues.
About the author:
Rowan submitted exactly one piece of microfiction to YeahWrite before being consumed by the editorial darkside. She spent some time working hard as our Submissions Editor before becoming YeahWrite’s Managing Editor in 2016. She was a BlogHer Voice of the Year in 2017 for her work on intersectional feminism, but she suggests you find and follow WOC instead. In real life she’s been at various times an attorney, aerialist, professional knitter, artist, graphic designer (yes, they’re different things), editor, secretary, tailor, and martial artist. It bothers her vaguely that the preceding list isn’t alphabetized, but the Oxford comma makes up for it. She lives in Portlandia with a menagerie which includes at least one other human. She tells lies at textwall and uncomfortable truths at CrossKnit.
