Winners of this year’s Nicole Blizzard Short Story Contest were announced last Saturday night during the 2012 Celebration of Change at UAA’s Wendy Williamson Auditorium. The contest, sponsored by Radical Arts for Women (RAW), is named in honor of Nicole Blizzard, an Anchorage lesbian writer and creator, publisher, and editor of the local LGBT literary journal Naked Ptarmigan, who passed away in December 2009. The contest was open to women living in Alaska as of January 2012, with stories required to be works of fiction of between 250 and 5,000 words and containing some lesbian content.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Laura Carpenter announces the winners of the 2012 Nicole Blizzard Short Story Contest at Celebration of Change 2012"][/caption]

Laura Carpenter announces the winners of the 2011 Nicole Blizzard Short Story Contest at Celebration of Change 2011

This year’s contest was judged by Laura Carpenter and Melissa (Mel) Green. Judging was “blind”: that is, the names of authors were unknown to the judges until they had already made their selections. This year’s contest included entries from Anchorage, Haines, Homer, Cordova, Eagle River, Gustavus, and Valdez. Thank you to everyone who shared their work!

Winners were announced by Laura Carpenter, who also read an excerpt of the winning story, “Totem” by Leslie Kimiko Ward. Besides receiving a cash prize of $500, Leslie will also have her story published on the RAW website. Additionally, for the first time this year, all winning and honorable mention stories will be collected in a professionally designed printed and electronic book collection. Stay tuned!

The complete winner’s list:

Grand prize and winner of $500

• “Totem” by Leslie Kimiko Ward

2nd place and winner of $300

• “Kay Baby” by Heather Teel

3rd place (tie) and winner of $50 each

• “People Like Us” by Teresa Sundmark
• “Ms. Connection” by Wendy Withrow

Honorable mention

• “Objects are Closer Than They Appear” by Susan M. Stade Bergstrom
• “Fairbanks in January” by Martha Amore
• “A World for Girls” by Karen Rasmussen
• “Ianthe” by Dorothy Spees
• “Sleeping Beauty” by Rosalie Loewen
• “The Difference” by Sheila Sine
• “The Rendezvous” by Alix Layton

Congratulations, and thanks to all the writers for sharing your work!