You’ve made it!
Here we are, at the end not just of this challenge, but of the YeahWrite Super Challenge. We’ve come a long way together, folks, and I appreciate that you’re impatient to take that last step. And hey, if you scroll down to see who the winners are first, I won’t tell. I’m a writer too, don’t forget. But before I give you the names of our final winners at our final challenge, I want to give you some other names. Erica, without whom there would be no YeahWrite. Michelle, who carried the torch. Christine, who stepped up. Without the leadership of these amazing women, I wouldn’t be writing to you right now, and I wouldn’t have spent the last **mumble** years reading what you’ve written. Stacie, who provided critical support (and woke up on East Coast time) when we needed her to. Arden, and when I say without Arden none of this would have been possible at all you have no idea what that means unless you have designed and run a website and multiple lists and challenges and know how much backend support that entails. She’s made it run seamlessly for years, staving off critical levels of burnout, massive tech failures, and that one weekend when nobody knew the confirmation info we needed to talk to the ISP and mail hosting — all while holding down a full time job and moving across the country. If you have done anything with us in the past decade, you owe Arden a big thank you. And our Superchallenge team and judges, who have kibitzed and critiqued and volunteered and held our hands as we tried (and we think at times succeeded) to make this one of the finest and most consistent challenges, with the highest standards for judging and writing. Christine, Arden, Cindy, Asha, Natalie, Nate, Genevra, Michelle, Jenny, Lisa, and so many others without whose consistent efforts to score fairly and give professional high-quality feedback this wouldn’t have been the challenge it was. Thank you all again from the bottom of my shriveled heart.
-Rowan
It’s ok; I know you skipped to this part
But do go back and read the thankyous, ok? If there’s anything you loved here, it’s because of them. And now let’s see who’s gonna love their cash prizes:
First Place
$200
Alyssa Beatty
Rewilding
Second Place
$150
Laura Duerr
The Girl Who Knew the Wind
Third Place
$100
Katie Battaglia Delay
Spray On, Scrub Off
Honorable Mention:
- MM Schreier – The Last Apology
- (tie) Beatriz Sasse – Obsolete
- (tie) Martini Lynne – The Lunar Librarian
Runners-up:
(in alphabetical order)
- Lisa Fox
- Ariana Hagan
- S.A. McNaughton
- Charlie Rogers
- Heather Scott
- Jessica Wilcox
Congratulations again to everyone who entered. Hopefully you’re finding your feedback useful and relevant! If you’re mad at your feedback right now, try walking away from it. Everything about your story is fresh and feels personal, and that’s a hard time to hear feedback. 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.
You’re free to share your work anywhere on the Internet you like, or take our judges’ suggestions and rework your submission to send on to other venues. Maybe pop into the Discord and see if anyone has any recommendations! We’ll miss you, so come find us! We’re not kidding!
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.
