2023 Award Winners

This year’s competition was strong with several hundred submissions sent in and our judges had a lot of fun reading each piece. Categories were Prose Poetry, Poetry, Fiction, and Non-fiction/Memoirs. Each piece was graded on quality/caliber, emotion, style/imagery, capture attention/surprise, and uniqueness/memorability. Judges read each piece without knowing the author or who any of the other judges were, to keep it as unbiased as possible. Without further ado, Raw Earth Ink, the editors, and judges are proud to present the 2023 winners to you.

Prose Poetry

• 1st Place – Echoes of Stale Air by Braeden Michaels
• 2nd Place – Ars Poetica, The Skin of This Poem by Rachael Ikins
• 3rd Place – The Buzz by Amanda Trout

Poetry

• 1st Place – Jukebox by J.R. Woods
• 2nd Place – Aftermath by Mose Graves
• 3rd Place – What Does Water Become? by Adele Evershed
• 4th Place – Casual Witness by Tohm Bakelas
• Top ten
• Lent by Suzette Bishop
• Crossing Over the Moose by Beth Kanell
• Take Heart, My Child by Robert Birkhofer
• It is Spring Again and Persephone Complains About Demeter by Nancy Dunlop
• Taking the Long Way Back by Michael Shoemaker
• The Weight of Days by Aaron A Brauer
• Winter by Tohm Bakelas
• Thirsty Lakes by Aaron A Brauer
• Bone Breathing by Suzette Bishop
• Spring by Tohm Bakelas
• Honorable Mentions
• I Am the Color Black by Braeden Michaels
• Watercolor at 35,000 Feet by Michael Shoemaker
• Death Visits the Hills by Aaron A Brauer
• Melancholy’s Song by Michael Shoemaker
• Caribou Farewell by Mose Graves
• When these thoughts are unlocked by J.R. Woods
• This Tree of Ripened Fruit by Beth Kanell
• Coffee Love by Tess Lecuyer
• A Doorway Guarded by Two Crows by Rachael Ikins
• Three Days on the Road by Vito del Valle
• Black Mission Fig by Diane Funston
• Nothing the Matter with Me by Carolyn Donnell

Fiction

• 1st Place – Start a Religion – Stay Out of Jail by Logan Medland
• 2nd Place – Never Seen or Heard from Again by Wren Oldham
• 3rd Place – Tea in the Pacific Northwest by Jim Landwehr
• 4th Place – Hurricanes in the South by Logan Medland
• Honorable Mentions
• When Hoboes Have Reasons by Loretta Kemsley
• The Venus Inn by Val Valdez
• Eau de Flaming Rubber by Loretta Kemsley

Non-fiction

• 1st Place – Me llamo by Amanda Trout
• 2nd Place – Basking by Angela Townsend
• 3rd Place – Memento by Kathryn O’Day
• 4th Place – Everyone Melts by Kaci Skiles Laws
• Honorable Mention
• My Arranged Marriage by Tulip Chowdhury

The 2023 Northwind Treasury is currently available for purchase in paperback from Lulu, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon. and in eBook from Lulu.