The winners of the 2026 Spring Writing Contests have been selected by seven judges, via a blind-review process, who awarded $8,750 to 10 student-writers. Rising 3rd-year MFA student Matti Ben-Lev, who is concentrating in nonfiction, took the top prize in three categories: the Rinehart Nonfiction Award, the Rinehart Poetry Award, and the Mark Craver- Virginia Downs Poetry Award.
Entries for this year's contest were especially robust, with 205 total submissions across the seven contests. The GMU Rinehart Fiction Award garnered the most submissions (37), with nearly 30 submissions for each of the other awards.
Congratulations to the winners and runners-up! Here are the results and some comments from the judges:
GMU Rinehart Fiction Award | $1,000; $250 — Judge: Amina Gautier (https://aminagautier.wordpress.com/)
Winner: Abigail Mills “Self-Portrait in Plasteline”
“From its compelling opening paragraph to its fleshy end, perfect pace, compelling characterization, believable action, and satisfyingly gorgeous last line, 'Self-Portrait in Plasteline' is a portrait of assured writing. Taking sculpture as its subject, this story captures the hunger and passion that drives all artists and reminds us why we create in the first place.”
Runner-up: Emily Weisenberger “A Living”
“‘A Living’ provides a funny and fresh take on the office workplace story with its satiric and innovative portrayal of what happens when ‘work-life balance’ goes awry.”
GMU Rinehart Nonfiction Award | $1,000; $250 — Judge: Andrew Bertaina (https://andrewbertaina.com/)
Winner: Matti-Ben Lev “A Love Supreme”
“'A Love Supreme' expertly weaves together the narrator's relationship with his father with the career and life of John Coltrane. The essay is both complex in its structure and themes, including addiction and recovery, as well as its surprisingly moving evocation of the love that a father has for his son. However, I haven't selected the essay because that love is easy or conclusive. Rather, the essay shows the reader how difficult people can be to love and how difficult an essay can be to wrangle into the shape we desire. Ultimately, I found the essay emotionally moving and stylistically interesting.”
Runner-up: Martheaus Perkins “Five Finger Paintings”
“This essay is a really pleasing example of the way the essay can be a container for almost anything, and I love writing that highlights the breadth of the form. This writer examines the painting of Jean-Michel Basquiat, racism, family history, mental health, and feedback on the very essay that we're reading. Rather than chaotic, this essay neatly captures the creative process, which is full of the bending and swerving as the mind tries to make meaning out of the world. It was a pleasure to read.”
GMU Rinehart Poetry Award | $1,000; $250 — Judge: Kemi Alabi (https://www.kemialabi.com/)
Winner: Matti Ben-Lev “Grateful”
“This poem sketched a portrait that lingered in my mind long after its closing line. The focused scene of ‘Grateful’ introduces readers to a complicated character vividly rendered, showcasing the power of close attention.”
Runner-up: Noa Cohen “Change in Season”
“This poem reveals the absurdity of peace once one has known violence, inviting readers into the speaker’s dissonance with powerful enjambments and a shapeshifting question.”
Virginia Downs-Mark Craver EcoPoetry Award | $1,000; $250 — Judge: Madeleine Wattenberg (https://www.madeleinewattenberg.com/)
Winner: Martheaus Perkins “Auntie Conjure”
“This poem immediately impressed me with its expansiveness. It lists leaders of slave revolts while meadow voles sing hymns. It knows it is important to say names of the dead alongside names of the living. The poem also offers a crucial reminder that we cannot address exploitation of the natural world without accounting for how Earth has been (sometimes quite literally) shaped by the legacy of slavery and anti-Blackness. The poem doesn’t offer the respite of certainty, but it makes one thing clear—the dirt is made of Blues and Gospel. After reading this poem, I’ll be listening more closely for its music.”
Runner-up: Michaela Godding “How will i learn love”
Mary Roberts Rinehart Fiction Award (MFA Students Only) | $1,000 ; RU: $250 — Judge: Mimi Montgomery (https://www.mimimontgomerywriter.com/)
Winner: Elizabeth Ottenritter “Under the Purple Light”
“{This story} had some really beautiful figurative language that made me pause and linger over the sentences. ("The night waiting for his exhale." "June sings itself away." "There are no stars in the sky, nothing to hang over the parking lot.") They felt like natural extensions of the sentences, not forced or overly written, which can be a hard line to walk as a writer. The interiority was also well done, and I felt like I had a good sense of Elinor's thinking as a young woman trying to find herself: what she likes, who she wants to be.”
Runner-up: Griffin Hamstead “Funny You Should Ask"
“I picked this as the runner-up because of the voice, which can be a really hard thing to discover and effectively embody as a writer. But voice is so important: It allows the author to give the reader information about the protagonist in a way that doesn't feel forced—who they are, where they come from, how they interact with the world—and also endears the author to the reader. Voice is one of the biggest reasons why readers will follow an author's work across a career, an essential when trying to carve out a niche for yourself in the crowded and competitive field of publishing.”
Mary Roberts Rinehart Nonfiction Award (MFA Students Only) |$1,000 ; RU: $250 —Judge: Jodie Mortag (https://lakeland.edu/faculty/jodie-mortag-mfa)
Winner: Kelsey Shelton “The Persimmon and I”
“'The Persimmon and I' takes the concept of comfort food to New York, Alabama, and Virginia to explore human connection through perfectly marbled steak, fatty bacon breakfast tacos, sexy General Tso’s chicken to show that “[e]ating is an act of intimacy,” and “[l]oneliness is a different kind of hunger.” Throughout the essay, the writer serves up a deep desire for community juxtaposed with their inability to bond with others: “There is a closeness to everyone that feels unimpeachable.” This is until the writer is re-introduced to the persimmon, a fruit that can tell the future, a fruit that symbolically offers them and readers hope.”
Runner-up: McKinley Johnson “Statue of Bacchus”
Mark Craver- Virginia Downs Poetry Award (MFA Students Only) | $1,000; RU: $250 — Judge: Logan Phillips (https://www.dirtyverbs.com/)
Winner: Matti Ben-Lev “bebop for a dead friend”
“Selected for its fierce attention to the poetic line, and a strong match of style and substance.”
Runner-up: Martheaus Perkins “Issue #24 of Flyboy & Lil Mama”