Read the 2021 Wild Women winners here.
And get the inaugural Wild Women issue here.
Read the 2020 Wild Women winners here.
Wild Women Story Contest
(Spring/Summer issue)
Deadline: March 8 (International Women's Day)
Release (updated): May 25
2022 Grand Prize Winner
Ashore
by Branden Boyer-White
Honorable Mentions/Contributors
Abduction by Tyler Wells Lynch
Anthropologist by Bergita Bugarija
Breaking the Seal by Marianne Leone
Carnage by Soraya Lolita Safavid
Confessions of a Skeleton Bride on Día de
los Muertos by Stacey R. Forbes
Divorce Slut by Ashley Michelle C.
Elsewhere by A.L. Rowser
Georgia-Carolina Bridge, in a Floor-Length Dress by Amy Richerson
Magic by Janet Ruth
Monarch by Emily Jon Tobias
Nightflight to Venus by Sarah Kontopoulos
Of Lavender and Mint by Phyn Vermin
On the Descent by Vanessa Baehr-Jones
prophecy by Jess Luna
Softly by Mary Pauer
Tattoo Poem by Maria Nazos
The Wife by Charlotte Edsall
Vessels of Light by Sandra Meade
Visiting the Queen by Barbara Tylla
What I Took from the River by Anja Semanco
What if We Were Named After What We Bring Each
Other? by fenestra
What to Expect When You’re Quite Certain You Don’t Want
to Be Expecting by E. Marla Felcher
Yellow Footprints by Allison Fischer
You—& My Abstract Theory of You by R. J. Keeler
Semifinalists
This is the first round of yeses. The Grand Prize winner and Honorable Mentions/Contributors will be selected from this list very soon!
36 by Sonia Sacheli
A Folktale for Our Time by Amanda Coleman White
A Mountain Calling by Nadra Dupé Henderson
A Room of One’s Own by Jessica L. Williams
Abduction by Tyler Wells Lynch
Anthropologist by Bergita Bugarija
Ashore by Branden Boyer-White
Aunt Bernadette Confesses by Beth Bayley
Bathing in You by Chuck McConnell
Beloved Beauty by Molly Akin
Biologically Speaking by Mary Christina Stanislaws
Body and Limb by dixmarie deLaneuville
Breaking the Seal by Marianne Leone
Burning Year by Megan Cook
Carnage by Soraya Lolita Safavid
Chickpeas by Mel Konner
Confessions of a Skeleton Bride on Día de
los Muertos by Stacey R. Forbes
Dandelion People by Stephany Phimmasouk
Declaration of Independence by Beth Holly
Demystifying a Witch by Sonia Sacheli
Diana Changed by Sandy Lender
Divorce Slut by Ashley Michelle C.
Do What You Can (to Make a Life) by Barb Peil
Elsewhere by A.L. Rowser
Eulogy by Maria Nazos
First Poem After the Stroke by Shanan Ballam
Forgive Me, Father by Kait Quinn
Georgia-Carolina Bridge, in a Floor-Length Dress by Amy Richerson
It Is by Elizabeth Sander
It’s All About Eve by Valerie Whitworth
Jenny: In Love and Suicidal by Sandro F. Piedrahita
June Viavant, Protector of the Wild by Debra Wilson Frank
Last Shower Before Moving On, Alone, into
Guatemala by Maria Nazos
Leash by Casey Forest
lépidoptères by Camryn Adele Portagallo
Little Spoon by Amalia Herren-Lage
Magic by Janet Ruth
Monarch by Emily Jon Tobias
Nestling in the Sycamores by Victoria Lee Smith
Nightflight to Venus by Sarah Kontopoulos
Of Lavender and Mint by Phyn Vermin
On the Descent by Vanessa Baehr-Jones
prophecy by Jess Luna
Shark Teeth and Angel Wings by Dawn-Dyanna Dhyanna
Softly by Mary Pauer
Sofy Wings by Liuyu Ivy Chen
Some Facts About Duffino by Brenda Shoshanna
Tattoo Poem by Maria Nazos
Thanx to Mama During Covid by Joy A. Dryer
The Dawn of Woman by Juley Harvey
The San Juans by Danielle Christmas
The Two Wives of Federico Ricci by EA Luetkemeyer
The Wife by Charlotte Edsall
The Woman in the Well House by Amanda Ashworth
To Ivy Raff by Ivy Raff
Vessels of Light by Sandra Meade
Visiting the Queen by Barbara Tylla
What I Took from the River by Anja Semanco
What if We Were Named After What We Bring Each
Other? by fenestra
What to Expect When You’re Quite Certain You Don’t Want
to Be Expecting by E. Marla Felcher
Who, Me? Engaging in Questionable Activities: How
“The Mother of Mulch” Took On President Nixon and
the FBI by Paula Newcomer
Wild Women: Joy Beyond Measure by Lulu Larcenciel
Windsurfing Woman, Juan de Fuca Strait by Norman Goodwin
Wonder Woman’s Last Interview for Vanity Fair by Tricia Knoll
Yellow Footprints by Allison Fischer
You—& My Abstract Theory of You by R. J. Keeler
You Gotta Be Kidding by Mark Mattmiller
Contest Description
We are looking for empowering stories (written by anyone) whose main characters embody the Wild Woman spirit.
The Wild Woman takes on many forms: rebels, subversives, and the untamed; maidens, mothers, queens, and crones; Holy women, healers, explorers, artists, and teachers.
We want stories about finding the Wild, reclaiming the Wild, experiencing the Wild, being the Wild. We especially love stories about the ways women use their power to create and shape the world, and stories about discovering—or remembering—this power in the first place.
These can be fiction, nonfiction, or poetry—as usual, if it tells a story, it fits!
Click here to return to the Guidelines page and to enter.
If we are not owning our power, it means someone else is.
It means we have handed the controls to a third party—our partner, our boss, a parent, or society as a whole.
The result is that we perpetuate a sense of ourselves as the victim, rather than the heroine, of our lives. . . .
Victimhood is our cultural norm. It’s how women in the patriarchy are raised to feel. We have not been raised to believe
we are the source of our own power,
the determiners of our own emotional state.
But in truth, that’s exactly who we are.
All it takes to know this, is to plug back into our radiance.
—Regena Thomashauer, aka “Mama Gena”
The School of Womanly Arts
*****
All around the world, women are stepping forward
to invite back their authentic, creative,
wonderfully unique selves.
We are shedding the old, faded clothes of war,
domination, competition, jealousy, and repression.
We are rising like the sun, shining big and bright as the full moon. We are saying yes to the power of fierce love, compassion, constant authenticity, and vulnerability.
2021 WINNERS
Grand Prize
The Girl Who Visited the Alligator Queen by Couri Johnson
Honorable Mentions/Contributors
A Distant Home by Nan Jackson
A Married Woman Walks into a Bar by Lucy Jane Bledsoe
A Selkie’s Tale by Hannah Yang
Ann, Without by Broderick Eaton
Beyond the Mountains by Mahalia Solages
Bone Memory by Melissa Min
Boxes That Won’t Fit by Heather Anderson
Bruised Ego Trip by Becky Jensen
Dust and Blood by Janet Ruth
Gretel’s Revenge by Sue Storts
Hooves at the Precipice by Jacqueline Sheehan
Inviting Her In by Peter Young
Maintenance by Kristina Van Sant
My Old Kentucky Home by Ellen Pauley Goff
On the Outside, Moving On by Nora Bonner
pretty by Sophia Slattery
Resurrection Mary by Kipling Knox
Saint Iriana, the Cow-Herder by Red Hawk
The Hunt by Anne Morales
The Nature of Her Identity by Jude Rittenhouse
The Obituary I Wish I’d Written by Brooke Herter James
To Auckland by Mellisa Pascale
To Helen and River of AA by Lila Quinn
Too Big For My Britches by Sarah Kotchian
Untethered by Mary Kate Wilcox
Women Arise Now ~ Water to Fire by Genét Bosqué
2020 WINNERS
Grand Prize
Eve: I Did It on Purpose by Melina Vanchieri
Honorable Mentions/Contributors
28 Days by Alyea Pierce
A Well-Cut Coat and Bright Smile by Patricia Schultheis
Choices by Pamela O’Hara
Climbing the (White) Ladder to Success by Leeanne R. Hay
Every Witch a Woman by Natasha Ayaz
Exonerves by Lisa Fransson
Femininity & Pleasure: Observations on Wingfire by Jessica Burdg
Free by Jacqueline Gryphon
Genesis by Yael Hacohen
Hercules by Anil Classen
I Want to Teach Camille by Jessica McDougald
In Love by Vlada Teper
on the day i shaved my head by Kaitlyn Zeran
Phoenix by Thea Swanson
Rewilding by Tracy Rose Stamper
Rice Wine and Blowdarts by Bonnie J. Morris
That Kiss by Sue Staats
The Day I Flew by Mariah Julio
The Renovation by Vanessa Park
Your Daughter Is a Full Moon by Sabrina Strand
2019 WINNERS
Grand Prize
The Missing Jesus by Neta Harris
Honorable Mentions/Contributors
A Lingering Vision by Henry Heitmann
After the Hunt by Gwyndolyn Neuwirth
An April Night by Vanessa Rowan Whitfield
At the Edge of the Earth by Kara Thompson
Bleeding Heart by Kesi Augustine
Bounced from Bunco by Nicole Tichon
Customs by Nancy T. McGlasson
Drama Queen by McKenzie Moser
Headline: Rival Gangs' Mothers Unite for Peace by Juley Harvey
How I Survived a Night with a Serial Killer by A. C. Bosco
How May Cracked Open the Universe by India Choquette
January 1 by Suzanne J Chick
Officer of Adaptation to Climate Change by Dean Gessie
Ornithology by Janet Hilliard-Osborn
Questions by Rachel Weaver
Revival by Kathleen Gerard
Shedding Skin by Erica Tolin
The Girl They Gave to Winter by Tina Blade
Truth or Consequences by Samantha Beaty
Woman Off the Grid by Sandy Lender
A Mountain Calling
By Nadra Dupé Henderson
Stories let us empower others.
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