“Pie Eating Contest” by Viewminder2. CC by 2.0.

All submissions to Tributaries are automatically entered in our annual contest! Every year, a famously talented guest judge chooses one winner and one runner-up in each genre: Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, Poetry, and Visual Arts.

Winners receive a cash prize and certificate, not to mention bragging rights, gushy praise, and boundless admiration from staff and peers alike. But no pie. Not yet, anyway.

Winners of the Tributaries 2022 Contests for Best Poetry, Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, and Visual Arts

Poetry

Winner: to my daughter, when you’re trying to decide—MariJean Wegert

Second Place: Yelling at Cars—Terra Orndorff

Fiction

Winner: Espada y la plaga / Swords and the Plague—Mya Whaley

Second Place: Standard American Bill—Mathea Tanner

Creative Nonfiction

Winner: Elias’s Table—Mathea Tanner

Second Place: In the Land of Drag—Richie Schenck

Visual Arts

Winner: Analogous Egg Nest—Julia Jackson

Second Place: Oscura the Sun Goddess—Stephanie Velasquez

Judges

For Poetry, Fiction, and Creative Nonfiction:

MARY ELIZABETH POPE grew up in Michigan with roots deep in the Missouri Bootheel and Northeast Arkansas. She is Professor of English at Emmanuel College in Boston. She is the author of Divining Venus: Stories (The Waywiser Press, 2013) and the novel The Gods of Green County (Blair, 2021). Her work has appeared in Arkansas Review, Florida Review, Fugue, Bellingham Review, Sycamore Review, Ascent, and many others. She lives outside Boston with her husband, Matt Elliott. (From maryelizabethpope.com/aboutme.)

For Visual Arts:

NATE KUZNIA currently serves as the Gallery Coordinator and Studio Technician for IU East. He earned his BFA (cum laude) with concentrations in Printmaking and Sculpture from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan and his MFA in Printmaking from IU Bloomington. A draughtsman and illustrator, his artwork has been exhibited both nationally and internationally.

Contests