By Alisha Siebers, Executive Director, Vicksburg Cultural Arts Center
The Vicksburg Cultural Arts Center has wrapped up the eighth season of the Tournament of Writers. This year’s competition drew 57 writers from a wide range of ages, competing for $1,200 in prizes.
The topic of escapism trended in this year’s entries, with many stories and poems about runaways, pirates, princesses, Vikings, space kittens, doppelgangers, and a whole kaleidoscope of monsters. Balancing this escapism were plenty of home-grown tales about wisdom gathered from everyday living. The grand prize went to Rick Chambers, of Portage, who wrote “Tuesday’s Tie,” a short story set in the Netherlands about a somewhat rigid man who wears a specific tie for each day of the week, until he mistakenly wears his Monday tie on Tuesday and discovers that he has traveled back in time one day.
The winners of the 2022 Tournament of Writers are:
Fiction: First Place, Hayden Moden (Junior Division), R.J. Robertson-DeGraaff (Young Adult Division), Dustin Colwell (Adult Division), and Rick Chambers (Senior Division). Second Place, Autumn Wyatt (Jr) tied with Brynn Hayman, Amanda Hamelink (YA), Ross Landers (A), and Jon Adams (Sr). Third Place, Harper Behrens (Jr), Sky Lester (YA), Aaron Kieffer (A), and Fred Zemlick (Sr).
Nonfiction: First Place, Finnegan Ross (Jr), Jacob Miller (YA), Christina Webb (A), and Cynthia Haas (Sr). Second Place, Lillian Ross (Jr), Ransom Biskie (YA), Ross Landers (A), and Jeanne Church (Sr), Third Place, Flora Najdowski (Jr), Kristin Youngs (A), and Mark Giacobone (Sr).
Poetry: First Place, Hayden Moden (Jr), Sydney Kaiser (YA), Kyle Johnson (A), and Jon Adams (Sr). Second Place, Lillian Ross (Jr), Hannah Laughery (YA), Hanna Owens (A), and Mark Giacobone (Sr).Third Place, Rhys Biskie (Jr), Ransom Biskie (YA) tied with Grace Flanagan, Simon Thalmann (A), and Jeanne Church (Sr).
Interested in participating next year or in purchasing the anthology of this year’s participants? Visit vicksburgarts.com/tournament-of-writers.