CONGRATULATIONS
to our 2025 Winner, Runner-Up & People’s Choice Winners!
KRISTIE SCHMIDT - Molasses Brain: Notes from a Mind Rearranged
Our judge, Sharon Butala, chose this story for the sheer strength of the writing in this extraordinary piece. “The writer shines consistently, through the entire work, and with an admirably delicate touch. This is an altogether mature piece of writing."
Kristie describes her story as being “born in the aftermath of long COVID, when my once-sharp mind slowed and stuttered in ways I could hardly recognize. For someone who had always relied on quick thinking and language, the loss feels like erasure. It's terrifying. This essay is both grief and reclamation: an attempt to show how fragments, lapses, and fog can still carry meaning, and how rebuilding a life is not about returning to who we were but about becoming someone new."
Kristie will receive a cash prize of $1000, generously donated by Amy MacRae's parents, Kerry and Betty Ho.
KATHRYN ROLFE - Somewhere the Light Still Found Me
Our judge particularly admired the "stirring descriptive passages that never overwhelm the story, while serving to bring the setting and mood of this place so deftly to life. This alone requires a high level of craft. A gripping piece of writing.”
In Kathryn’s own words: "I began writing about my solo camping trip to Shetland only last year, once I recognised how transformational it had been. I’ve taken writing seriously only in recent years, discovering that I could shape my experiences into something meaningful. This story quickly became an impulse to tell; drafting, refining, and revising many times over. In doing so, I came to understand its significance more fully. The process of writing was not just creative practice but also profoundly healing, helping me recover perspective and find meaning. The trip changed me, but writing the story revealed just how deep that change ran."
GEORGINE HODGKINSON & MARK LIEBENOW shared this year’s People's Choice Award! Over 400 readers cast their vote for their favourite of the shortlisted stories and "The Fish Car" and "Red Curry Chicken" tied as the most popular stories. Cheers to you both! 🥳
Georgine described the origins of her story thus: "My father is a complicated character in my life story. 'The Fish Car' reflects one of the few visits I had with him after my parents divorced. Until my thirties, we had little contact. That changed when my father suffered a massive stroke at fifty-nine, leaving him nonverbal. Today, he's eighty-two, and we see each other regularly. Though Dad was absent for most of my youth, he cries tears of joy when I visit. Relationships grow and change, just like people. I'm grateful that the one I share with my father has evolved into something meaningful."
Mark Liebenow: “As I deal with aggressive prostate cancer, I realized I had two women who died in their forties as role models for whatever happens. My wife Evelyn never gave up hope and pushed for eight years to overcome the fatigue and frustrations of Candida until she was ready to return to public school teaching. After Molly’s terminal brain cancer returned, she continued to support me as I grieved and refused to stop celebrating what was good in life. Her painting reminds me to live every day and do what I love for as long as I can.”