Stories let us empower others.

Wild Women Story Contest
(Spring/Summer issue)


Deadline: March 8 (International Women's Day) 
Release: May 15


2023 Grand Prize Winner

Life on the Ledge by Amy Soscia



2023 Honorable Mentions/Contributors

Aching for More by Armen Bacon

After Hiker Midnight by Kayla Agnir

Brass by Ingrid L. Taylor

Confession of a Female Bodybuilder by Mia Cara Kinsella

Happy Birthdays to Me! by J. Michele Moll

​heart circle by M. Kate Allen

Heat Map by Hannah Hindley

Hips by Laurel Maxwell

Intergenerational by Lila Quinn​

Middle Bear by Vanessa Rowan Whitfield

Putting Down a Horse by Marie A. Unini

Provisioning Between Lives by Joanne Gram

​Rebecca’s Piano by Diane Allerdyce

River Bottom by Molly Akin

The Body of a Bird by Elise Ball

​​The Club by Liz Kelner Pozen

The Crows at Countryside by Heather Murray

​The Day She Decided to Wear No Clothes by Joanna Zarkadas

The Lunar Light Within by Jess Whetsel

The Protector by Margaret Speck Ogawa

The Wise-Ass Doesn’t Fall Far from the Tree by Don Carter

The Witch by Katherine Royce

Unlearning Their Forced Desire for Me to Become
Someone I’m Not
 by Aurora Bones

Weedology and the Wild by Sarah Schiff

Wilderness Bride by karla k. morton




Semifinalists

A Good Horse by Jennifer Laxton

​A Nature Poem​ by M.K. Brake

​A Surviving Light by Brittany Moody

​A Weenie by Any Other Name by Rita Ariyoshi

​Aching for More by Armen Bacon

​After Hiker Midnight by Kayla Agnir

​At the Edge of the Picture by Ann Shenfield

​At the Nationals Game by Abby E. Murray

Backfire by Dawn Yackzan

​Barry’s Gate by Ann O’Mara Heyward

Big Grrl by Yaya Cole

​Black Pearl by Kelly Lattin

​Boundless Waves Against Shut Eyes by Shakira Croce

Brass by Ingrid L. Taylor

​Buckle Bunny by Kathryn Graves Yoder

​Confession of a Female Bodybuilder by Mia Cara Kinsella

​Covenless by N.M. Bailey

dance by Bree Hellwig

Dancing in the Rainbow by Susan Heibert​

​Dear Daughter by Prana Mandoe

​Detour by Beverly J. Orth

​Doing Rage by Lois McCullen Parr

​Down in the Dump by Karin Evans

​Dry Sink by Mina Manchester

Early One Romantic Morning by Debra J. Owen

Eclipse by Gaea Bailey 

Education by Casey Winslow​

​Eleanor and Isak by Deborah Stewart Chinn

​Elegy for Julia by Carrolline Rhodes

​Eras(h)er by Alisa Burpee

​Fight Like a Girl by Justine Payton

​Happy Birthdays to Me! by J. Michele Moll

​He Interrupts Me by Isabel Oakley

heart circle by M. Kate Allen

Heat Map by Hannah Hindley​

​Helping Hands by Mary Bess Dunn

Hips by Laurel Maxwell

​Hold My Drama, Please by Jill Cunningham

​In a Blink Tree by Halima Abdi

​In Training by Teresa Burns Gunther

Intergenerational by Lila Quinn​

​It Lay in Pieces by Joanne Gram

​Jessie Talked to God by Maggie Felisberto

​Joy Ride by Lisa Lutwyche

​Juanita Falls into Her Story by Adela Najarro

​Let Blood by Elizabeth Earley

​Life on the Ledge by Amy Soscia

​Middle Bear by Vanessa Rowan Whitfield

More Bursting Than Juicy by Sophy C Chaffee​

Moving On by Sandra Jackson-Opoku​

My Beautiful Chaos by Claudia Davis​

​No Never, No More by Isabel Wolfe-Frischman

​Parables of Growth by Delilah Shapiro

​Pearl Snaps by Sally Cobau

​Period Piece by Ann O’Mara Heyward

​Pressing Warmth by Joanne Gram

Propolis by Joe Gutesha

​Provisioning Between Lives by Joanne Gram

​Putting Down a Horse by Marie A. Unini

​Quiet Poems by Katharina Javier

​Rebecca’s Piano by Diane Allerdyce

Red by Rebecca Brock

Reflect by Laurel Maxwell

​River Bottom by Molly Akin

Setting the Bar by Megan Williams​

​Sister Patrice by Barbara Neely

Strange Fruits by Aria Emerson​

​Tender Is the Girl by Jikai Zheng

​The Black Star by Cassie Burkhardt

The Body of a Bird by Elise Ball​

The Box by Jeffrey M. Feingold

​​The Club by Liz Kelner Pozen

​The Crows at Countryside by Heather Murray

​The Dairy Doll by Robin Caine

​The Dark Queen by Janet Ruth

​The Day She Decided to Wear No Clothes by Joanna Zarkadas

​The Death of a Marriage by Tina Jenkins Bell

​The Joy of Sakura by Margaret Speck Ogawa

​The Lamentation of Rhode by Colleen Glen

​The Legend of Lizzie Gold by Alan Jaye

​The Lunar Light Within by Jess Whetsel

​The Mother’s Choice by Samantha N. Chencharik

​The Odd Woman and the City by Liz DeGregorio

​The Protector by Margaret Speck Ogawa

The Ride by Lourdes Thuesen

​The Sabbath Queen by Sarah Antine

​The Voyeurs by Margaret Chula

​The Wild Made Free by Brittni Kirkpatrick

The Winter Creek by Jill Wooddell Aller

​The Wise-Ass Doesn’t Fall Far from the Tree by Don Carter

​The Witch by Katherine Royce

Un-bound by Elizabeth V. Best

(Un)Becoming Carolyn by Kate Leboff​

​Unlearning Their Forced Desire for Me to Become
Someone I’m Not by Aurora Bones

​Unseen Malady by Carol J. Scamman

​Uvula: A Love Story by M.K. Brake

​Weedology and the Wild by Sarah Schiff

​When She Comes Back by Sophie Petit

​Wilderness Bride by karla k. morton

​​With Thanks to Amanda Gorman—Still by Wynne Brown





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.

​​—HeatherAsh Amara



2022 Winners
Grand Prize

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 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 L. 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


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

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