Wild Women Story Contest
(Spring/Summer issue)
Deadline: March 8 (International Women's Day)
Release (updated): May 31, 2025
2025 Grand Prize Winner
Rainbow Sprinkles by Allyson Petrek
2025 Honorable Mentions/Contributors
1/21/2025 by Izzy Forrest
Cedar Woman by Alexis Bonavitacola
Confessions of a Free Woman by Carla Vianna
Dinosaur Rock by Marsh Rose
Feed her by Jenna Smith
For the Birds by Emily France
In Another Life—a Dream Tied to a Mesquite Tree by Mary Ann Burrows
Into the Blue by Shakira Croce
Moose by Nancy L. Davis
Ode to Helene, October 2024 by Barbara Roether
Ode to the Starving Body by Sophie H. Lajnef
Paperbacks by Courtney Hanks
Postcards from New Hampshire by Anneke Bender
Rainforest Fermata by Ayla Gard
Satisfying a Woman by Jennifer Schollars
Second Career by Noel Plennert Poston
Sneaking Around by Erin DiCamillo
Survival by Haya Pomrenze
Swimmer by Barry Fields
Tarantulas in the Pumphouse by Linda Caradine
Woman of the house by Julia Burke
Yesterday’s News by Amy Haddad
2025 Semifinalists
1/21/2025 by Izzy Forrest
A Walk in the Park by Sara Cemin
Aphid Speaks by Amelia L. Williams
Arachne the Seamstress by J. Jirout, K. Donohue
Bell Clangor by Richard Jespers
Blossoms by Lorraine E. Murphy
Cat and Fox on Lazy Afternoon by Richard Jespers
Cedar Woman by Alexis Bonavitacola
Communion by Sofia Ziegler
Confessions of a Free Woman by Carla Vianna
Cultivated Wildness by Lorianna Singleton
Daphne by Don Manning
Dinosaur Rock by Marsh Rose
Eclipse by Gaea Bailey
Entitled by Denise Heinze
eve's daughter by gia
Feed her by Jenna Smith
Fistfight with a Deer by Becky Jensen
For the Birds by Emily France
Forgiveness, Tuskegee, 1965 by Theresa Roach Melia
Founding Alaska by JoAnne Preiser
full moon eclipse by Carrie Nassif
Helpmeet by Amelia L. Williams
Homecoming by Christina Maldonado
How the Clouds Blush by Ashley Badesch
In Another Life—a Dream Tied to a Mesquite Tree by Mary Ann Burrows
Into the Blue by Shakira Croce
Lioness by Jim Gill
Medusa Wore Hiphuggers by Nancy Beauregard
Mondo by B. de la Cuesta
Moose by Nancy L. Davis
Mr. Happy’s Convenient Mart and Confectionary by Kevin Sandefur
No Easy Blossom by Nancy L. Meyer
Obrigado by R.C. Goodwin
Ode to Helene, October 2024 by Barbara Roether
Ode to the Starving Body by Sophie H. Lajnef
One Obit Too Many by JoAnn Bren Guernsey
Paperbacks by Courtney Hanks
Phenomenal Pussy by Angelique V. Nixon
Police Blotter: Central Park, Late July by M. Brooke Wiese
Postcards from New Hampshire by Anneke Bender
Queen of Beasts by Roger Moreland
Rainbow Sprinkles by Allyson Petrek
Rainforest Fermata by Ayla Gard
Rebelde by Heidi Lepe
Recentering Myself by Vanessa Sprague
Remember When the Gypsies Came by LaVon Bridges
Roadrunner by Addie E. Citchens
Roots by Sara N. McCord
Rules of Eating Roadkill by Rain Ackerman and Rudy Buller
Satisfying a Woman by Jennifer Schollars
Scarlet by Emily France
Second Career by Noel Plennert Poston
Show and Tell by Terry Davis
Slow Motions by Anneke Bender
Sneaking Around by Erin DiCamillo
Some Consolation by Joanne Gram
Spaces by Nancy L. Davis
Stella’s New Game by Suzanne Uttaro Samuels
Student Love by LaVon Bridges
Summer at My Feet by Jacqueline Sweeney
Survival by Haya Pomrenze
Swimmer by Barry Fields
Tall Tale the Size of Texas by Annette Lucksinger
Tarantulas in the Pumphouse by Linda Caradine
The Absinthe Drinker by Celeste Amidon
The Curious Incident of the Dog by R. H. Miller
The Defiant Soldiers by Pranavi Chatrathi
The First Sfogliatella by Erica Elsa Ferdinandi Laros
The Green Thread by Anneke Bender
The Lookout by Lena Hari
The Owl Knew by Christy McConnell
Through the Transom by Janet Ruth
Today I’m Strange by Callie Ann Marsalisi
Venus by Elisabeth Lorentzsen
Was Is Would Be by Mark Lyn Campbell
We Used to Hunt Whales by Victor McConnell
What I Did Last Summer by Carol Gremli
Whenever you get there, there is no there there by Amanda Rabaduex
Woman of the house by Julia Burke
Yesterday’s News by Amy Haddad
Yo Mama Is a Sestina by Camille Hernandez
Contest Description
This contest is based on the radical idea that history and the present moment are not just a series of wars and domination—destruction. The creative life force carried forward through the millennia, frankly, does not get enough appreciation, and the creative force and the Wild are innate in the Feminine spirit.
We are looking for empowering stories (written by anyone) whose main characters embody the Wild Woman spirit.
We want stories about finding the Wild, reclaiming the Wild, experiencing the Wild, being the Wild, staying 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.
Stories 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.
*****
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.
PAST WINNERS
2024
Grand Prize
Our Fairy Tale by Victoria Castañeda
Honorable Mentions/Contributors
After a Long Walk, I Talk to Myself by Kayla Heinze
Feral by Suzanne Chick
Feral by Eddi Salado
For Circe by Lauren Hayes
If the Word for You Is Dyke by Robin Percyz
I’m Not the Heroine of Your Cancer Novel by Laura E. Garrard
In case you didn’t know by Joanne Gram
In the Middle of Nowhere by Rosie Cohan
Laundry by Esther Ra
Monkey Balls by Connie Corzilius
Not expecting to fly. Flying anyway by Erin Robertson
Queen of Wands by Stephanie Whetstone
Re: My Continued Tardiness by Mary Paulson
Say Goodbye to the Boob by Susan Jensen
Song for the black cat outside my mother’s
apartment by Kinsale Drake
still life (talking) by Stephanie Renee Payne
The Cambium Layer by Elinor Davis
The Procedure by Molly Murfee
While Your Back Was Turned by Hampton Williams Hofer
2023 WINNERS
Grand Prize
Life on the Ledge by Amy Soscia
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
Weedologyand the Wild by Sarah Schiff
Wilderness Bride by karla k. morton
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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