And the Winners Are (Updated)
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Five months ago we challenged you to share your stories with us by writing into four powerful prompts: Death, Reentry, Work, and Space. Those prompts represented themes that were top-of-mind for a world in transition. Your 9,000-plus stories were incredibly transparent; the vulnerability on display made for hours of satisfying reading.
Judge said, “The range of subjects and the variety of tone was exciting. It was a really strong group of contenders.”
The winner of the grand prize and death prompt is, “Keeper of the Place,” by first-time Medium writer . Randi writes about her 74-year-old grandmother, who had undiagnosed bipolar disorder and died by suicide after the death of her daughter, Randi’s mother.
Her opening paragraph is chilling. [sensitive content below]
“My Grandmother Mamie killed herself when she was 74 years old. She drove my mother’s car onto some railroad tracks in the middle of nowhere out toward Abilene and then set a fire in the trunk before shooting herself in the side of the head.”
“The imagery is so vivid and unique as are the characters throughout,” says Medium staff judge . “The different layers of the piece give it serious narrative heft. And the way it’s structured is a master class.”
With over 3,500 entries, Death was the dominant prompt. There were similar types of losses running through the topic. In addition to the passing of grandparents, essays about the death of spouses and pets were also recurring themes. There were several symbolic takes on death, specifically around changes in habits.
The winning essay in the Reentry prompt, “The Hope that Holds You Back,” puts the reader in the skin of a writer suffering from postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS). Writer ’s body was failing her, yet she found it difficult to accept the disabled tag. Her entry is a great read about a writer’s fight for independence and hopefully inspires those who are disabled to find the joy in life as you are versus the utopian cured state that may not come.
Longtime Medium writer , who wrote to all four prompts, won the Work category with his essay “Black Personhood Does Not Have Equitable Access to the Work of Homeownership.” The piece is as much a history lesson as it is an exploration of the pain of DIY projects.
“Hal’s essay is compositionally one of the most interesting, thoughtful, and unique of the entire competition,” says staff judge . “He uses his family history to tell a broader story of dual Black American experiences, and brings it all together with a warm, accessible anecdote about home maintenance.”
’s essay “The Space Between My Fingers” was victorious in the Space prompt. Meera’s work digs into immigration, as it was ruled she was unable to legally relocate from India to Canada with her family. She found a connection to her mother through food, pooris and potatoes, in particular. Faced with a long separation, the meals her mother taught her how to cook provided comfort that she needed.
Judge shared, “Over the years I’ve served on various juries judging various kinds of writing. I don’t think I’ve ever been involved in a judging process where all the judges read all the work, or where the best work was so unequivocally the best.”
Special thanks to all who participated in the Medium Writers Challenge, and congratulations to the prompt and grand prize winners. Honorable mention winners will be announced on Friday, October 15.
Honorable Mention Winners
Death
“Barn,” by
“Death — Italian Style,” by
“Sky Burial,” by
“Lessons from Roosters,” by
“Howl into the Wind,” by
“These Were Our Years,” by
“One Stitch at a Time,” by
“Dead Man’s Bowling Balls,” by
“How To Keep a Dead Cat In Your Freezer,” by
“Bittersweet Symphony,” by
“It Was Our Summer of Dying,” by
“Dear Bryan,” by
“A Bone’s Story,” by
“A Slow Voyage of Acceptance,” by
“Daffodils for Dharma,” by
“Beach Day,” by
“Home Birth, Home Death,” by
“The Secret Language,” by
“Man As Deer,” by
“The Mind Does Strange Things When It Accepts That You Going to Die,” by
“A Fate Worse Than Death,” by
“Slayed by Joy,” by
“The Fact that You’re Smiling,” by
“A Perfect Boon,” by
“I Might Have Named Her Lucy,” by
“My Year of Non-Magical Thinking,” by
Reentry
“Leaving Neonatal: A New Birth,” by
“Like Icarus,” by
“How to Make the Turn,” by
“Going Back was the Beginning,” by
“Echoes of Love,” by
“Behind Every Lining Is a Silver Cloud,” by
“What Do You See When You Close Your Eyes?” by
“How The Midnight Express Came To Our Rescue During Our Family Reunion,” by
“The Bruises on My Arms,” by
“Birds Still Sing When It Rains,” by
“On Sunlight and Old School Horses: Return to Los Angeles,” by
“At 40, I Was Scared to Enter the Dating Pool Again,” by
“Hyphenated,” by
“Shame Isn’t an Incentive Program,” by
“In Case of Emergency,” by
“Numbers Are People Too,” by
“Back in the Saddle: Learning to Love My Dad, Myself, and the Bicycle Again,” by
“It’s a Hard Thing, Getting Back to the Life You Never Really Had,” by
“The Reality of Reentry,” by
“A Reflection on the Cosmic Power of My Own Two Hands,” by
“In Sickness and in Health,” by
“Regeneration,” by
“The World Is Not Waiting Where You Left It,” by
“How I Grew Up Alien,” by
“Riding My First Loop Roller Coaster as an Adult,” by
Space
“The Eight-Legged Tenant,” by
“How To Become A More Selfish Parent,” by
“I Live in the Space Between Words,” by
“A Single Woman’s Space,” by
“Growing Into My Skin: Tales from the Depths of Ugliness,” by
“A Walk in the Park,” by
“Ms. Suzy and Mom: Correspondents from the Trenches,” by
“The Time I Hatched an Egg,” by
“The Growing Space Between Us,” by
“Office Space,” by
“Safe as Houses,” by
“Dead Girls Don’t Eat,” by
“Enough Space To Be Ok,” by
“How To Create Space For Uncertainty In An Autistic Mind,” by
“Rewilding,” by
“Moments Of Perihelion,” by
“The Space Of What Could Have Been,” by
“Star Search,” by
“A Father, A Son, And 29 Cars,” by
“The Midnight Panini King,” by
“The Haunting Of The Mikel Manse,” by
“The Car Ride After The Boy,” by
“Objects In Space Must Always Exist On Some Level,” by
“In Defense Of My Mother,” by
“When Two Of My Worlds Collide In One Contained Space,” by
Work
“We Need More Stories Where Nothing Works Out, and Here’s Why,” by
“A Mother’s Work is Everything,” by
“How Sex Work Saved Me From Academia,” by
“Honest Work,” by
“Who Are You Calling Lazy?” by
“Hard Sell,” by
“When a Boy Doesn’t Need to Die,” by
“This Body of Work,” by
“This is what we do.” by
“When Your Life’s Work No Longer Works,” by
“What It’s Like Working in an Office When You Have Tourette’s Syndrome,” by
“Somebody v. Nobody,” by
“To All the Jobs I’ve Had Before,” by
“I’m a Human Error, And That’s Okay,” by
“Secondary Traumatic Stress (or: On the Dispersal of Brain Matter in a Kentucky Trailer),” by
“The Diminishing Value of a Stay-Home Mother After Divorce,” by
“When I Was a Receptionist,” by
“The Low-Down, Dirty-Rotten, No-Good Worship of Work,” by
“Green Is the Color of My Eyes,” by
“Why I Like a Good Funeral,” by
“We Meet on the Page: The Writer-Editor Relationship,” by
“The Rat Race Is for the Rats,” by
“I’m Retired, But I Can’t Stop Working,” by
“There’s Work, and Then There’s Your Life’s Work,” by
November 5, 2021: A previous submission listed as an Honorable Mention has been replaced due to our technical error.
If you or a loved one are struggling with thoughts of self-harm or suicide, please do not hesitate to contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1–800–273-TALK (8255). This is a free, 24/7 confidential service that can provide people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress, or those around them, with support, information, and local resources. For more information, call or visit SuicidePreventionLifeline.org.
