SLCC Community Writing Center

In today’s CWC Spotlight, meet Frank!

In 2025, twenty-one writers were selected as winners in seven categories of the 66th annual Utah Original Writing Competition, by the Utah Division of Arts & Museums and the Salt Lake Community College Community Writing Center. Winners were selected from 317 entries submitted by Utah-based writers.

A private event celebrating Utah writers and the Original Writing Competition will be held on November 12, 2025, from 6 p.m.- 8 p.m. There will be an awards ceremony and readings by previous competition winners.

2025 UTAH ORIGINAL WRITING COMPETITION WINNERS

Category A: Novel, judged by Meg Elison
First Place: "Recipient," by Anna Bessesen, Murray
Second Place: "To the Right of the Moon," by BJ Eardley, Moab
Honorable Mention: "The Secret Guest Book of the Inn-Between," by Robert Vicens, Salt Lake City

Category B: Creative Nonfiction Book, judged by A. Kendra Greene
First Place: "Reverence Is Resistance: Stories & Spells from a Lake-led Movement," by Savannah Pearson, Salt Lake City
Second Place: "Pretend It Never Happened," by Carolyn Campbell and Karin Krueger, Salt Lake City
Honorable Mention: "History of an IED Hunter," by Melissa Hansen, Woods Cross

Category C: Poetry Collection, judged by Ina Cariño
First Place: "Somewhere Horses," by Jasmine Khaliq, Salt Lake City
Second Place: "We Are Milkweed," by Kim Welliver, Salt Lake City
Honorable Mention: "Hand-drawn Maps from Memory," by Lesley Hart Gunn, Provo

Category D: Children's Book, judged by Claire Taylor
First Place: "The Summer of Grandma's Dolls," by Louise Hurd, North Ogden
Second Place: "One Way or Another," by Sharlee Glenn, Pleasant Grove
Honorable Mention: "Merit & Lu: The Case of the Sticky Wicket," by Libby Ludlow, Park City

Category E: Poetry, judged by Heather Lang-Cassera
First Place: "Trying on New Gods," by Erica Plummer, South Jordan
Second Place: "Brimming," by Katherine January, Bountiful
Honorable Mention: "Dearly Beloved, Orion Caught in a Dead Spruce, Willow, Rural Cemetery, Santa Monica Pier, Biomass 1-4," by Joe Roberts, Salt Lake City

Category F: Short Story, judged by A.C. Wise
First Place: "The Trial," by Abigail Rose-Marie, Spanish Fork
Second Place: "The Fishhusband of Stinking Water," by Christian Loftus, Kaysville
Honorable Mention: "Faith in a .44," by C.K. Turner, Sandy

Category G: Creative Nonfiction Essay, judged by Tyler Orion Glauz-Todrank
First Place: "Skylab and Feather," by Cheyenne Nimes, Salt Lake City
Second Place: "Manners," by Abigail Rose-Marie, Spanish Fork
Honorable Mention: "Children of the Birds," by Chloe Scheve, West Valley City

Note: the accompanying photos are of the 2025 UOWC judges. For their bios, go to https://www.slcc.edu/cwc/utah-original-writing-competition.aspx

Congratulations to each of the winners on their award-winning writing!

This week’s writing prompt:

Write from the perspective of a classic monster (vampire, Frankenstein’s monster, witch, ghost, etc.)
How do they experience the world? What are their motivations? Are they misunderstood, and if so, how do they feel about that?

Write a short story, an imaginative poem, or even a journal entry or letter from your monster’s perspective!

Leave it in a comment, tag us in a post, or keep it just for yourself!