Mason Creative Writing is pleased to announce this year's judges for the annual Spring Writing Contests. Winners will receive $1000 and runners-up will receive $250 for each of the seven contest categories. Four contests are open to current undergraduate writers across the university, and three contests are for current MFA in Creative Writing students only. Please read the guidelines carefully.
Complete contest information and submission guidelines can be found here.
*** Deadline: April 10 at 12pm noon! ***
GMU Rinehart Fiction Award | JUDGE: Amina Gautier
Amina Gautier is the author of four award-winning short story collections, At-Risk, Now We Will Be Happy, The Loss of All Lost Things, and The Best That You Can Do. Her most recent collection The Best That You Can Do (Soft Skull/Catapult Press), the inaugural winner of the Soft Skull Kimbilio Publishing Prize, has been awarded the Midwest MLA Book award, an International Latino Book Award, a Silver IPPY Award in Short Story Fiction, a Florida Book Award in Fiction Silver Medal, a Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year Award Honorable Mention (Runner-Up), was a Finalist for the Big Other Book Award and the Housatonic Book Award, and was Longlisted for The Joyce Carol Oates Prize and The Story Prize. For her body of work, she has received The Chicago Public Library Foundation’s 21st Century Award, the PEN/MALAMUD Award for Excellence in the Short Story, and the Blackwell Prize. https://aminagautier.wordpress.com/
GMU Rinehart Nonfiction Award | JUDGE: Andrew Bertaina
Andrew Bertaina is the author of the essay collection, The Body Is A Temporary Gathering Place (Autofocus 2024), the book-length essay, Ethan Hawke & Me (Barrelhouse, 2025), and the short-story collection, One Person Away From You (Moon City Press Award Winner 2021). His work has appeared in The ThreePenny Review, New Letters, Prairie Schooner, Orion, and elsewhere. His work has been anthologized in The Best American Poetry, The Best Microfiction, and listed as notable in three editions of The Best American Essays and as a special mention in The Pushcart Prize anthology. He has an MFA from American University and more of his work is available at andrewbertaina.com.
GMU Rinehart Poetry Award | JUDGE: Kemi Alabi
Kemi Alabi is the author of Against Heaven (Graywolf Press, 2022), selected by Claudia Rankine as winner of the Academy of American Poets First Book Award. The collection was a Kate Tufts Discovery Award finalist, Chicago Review of Books Award winner, and one of the New York Public Library’s Best Books of 2022, among other honors. Alabi’s poems have appeared in The Atlantic, The Nation, Poetry, Boston Review, the Grammy-nominated album Difficult Grace, and elsewhere. For more, check out kemialabi.com.
Virginia Downs-Mark Craver Ecopoetry Award | JUDGE: Madeleine Wattenberg
Madeleine Wattenberg is the author of I/O (University of Arkansas Press, 2021). Her work is published in The Georgia Review, Kenyon Review, Poetry, Poetry Daily, Salamander Magazine, The Rumpus, and DIAGRAM. She has an MFA in poetry from George Mason University and a PhD in poetry from the University of Cincinnati. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor of Writing at Lakeland University. Visit madeleinewattenberg.com.
Mary Roberts Rinehart Fiction Award (MFA Students Only) | JUDGE: Mimi Montgomery
Mimi Montgomery is a journalist at Axios who’s written for outlets like The Washington Post, Washingtonian, Garden & Gun, and Outside Magazine, and her reporting has been featured on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Inside Edition, and CNN, among others. Mimi attended the University of Virginia and has a master’s from Georgetown University. Her first novel, Murder Bites, will be published by Penguin Random House this August. mimimontgomerywriter.com
Mary Roberts Rinehart Nonfiction Award (MFA Students Only) | JUDGE: Jodie Mortag
Jodie Mortag, a true Wisconsinite, having labored numerous summers in the mozzarella factory where her parents met, received her MFA from Wichita State University. Mortag is an associate professor of writing at Lakeland University and is the editor of the literary magazine Seems. Her work appears in Ruminate, North Dakota Quarterly, Counterclock, Fourteen Hills, and Barnstorm, among others. Learn more on her Lakeland University page.
Mark Craver-Virginia Downs Poetry Award (MFA Students Only) | JUDGE: Logan Phillips
Logan Phillips, a writer and cultural worker, was appointed Poet Laureate of Tucson, Arizona, in 2026. He is author of the books Reckon (University of Arizona Press, 2026), Sonoran Strange (2015), and the ongoing NoVoGRAFíAS series. Phillips is known for compelling, bilingual readings, and multimedia performance art pieces. Holding collaboration as a core creative practice, he has contributed to a wide range of publishing, music, education, and community-centered, land-based projects in the US, Mexico, Colombia, and beyond. His books, tour dates, and newsletter can be found at Dirtyverbs.com.