We’re back with more contest results and we have to say—what an incredible contest! We always receive amazing submissions, but for this particular contest, the submissions were outstanding. It was a tough decision. If you submitted to the Book-Pitch Contest, we want all of you to know how talented you are! We hope to see your books on the shelves someday, so keep going with your projects! Thank you, as always, for the patience as you awaited the response. We’re writers as well, and we know your pain. Huge thank you to Kylie Schachte, Author of You’re Next, for agreeing to be our guest mentor for the winner and to Kaitlyn Johnson at Belcastro Literary Agency for assisting with mini workshops for all our submitters! And now for the big moment!
Drum roll, please!
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First Place Winner: Janae Newsom for June Nova
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Finalists:
Dakota Shain Byrd and Bridgette Johnson for The Southern Queers’ Guide to Curse-Breaking and Monster Hunting
Hiba Tahir for Aisha Stands Up
Alexander Casey for Simply the Best
Monique Ruiz for The Usual Place
Christina Im for The Ash of Other Bodies
Rufus Elaine Halpern for I Don’t Know if I’m Faking it
Lizzie Frank for Nights of Music
Symone West for Stealing the Sun
Kelsey Robinson for The Glass Dagger
Jean Ferruzola for Alma Aguilar’s Guide to Breaking Curses
Alicia Fleming for The Gulch
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Longlist (in no particular order):
Kwadjo Boateng for Brothers
Yoruba Baltrip-Coleman for The Darkening
Victoria Wlosok for How to Find a Missing Girl in 30 Days or Less
Rebecca Kilroy for Graves, Spooke, and Gasp
Kathryn Birchfield for Untitled Asexual Love Story
Lily Chien-Davis for The Forever Life
Elaine Gao for The Oracle
Angela Pilson for The Huntsman’s Daughter
Brian Fence for The Janet Project
Kate Bove for The Hollow River
Michele Bartlett for Silence
Eliz Morgan for Darlings of Ruin
Olivia Martello for Starlight and Shadow
Lukas Hall for The Patient Routine
Autumn Perales for Embers and Thorns
Jenny Feldon for A Place Like Home
Laura Diamond for Audacity
Lauren Fulcher for Junior
Rachel Hammond for The Secret Language of Flowers
Toke Adejoye for The World At The Bottom of Darkness
Kat Gonso for The Tour of Great American Tragedies
Yousra Medhkour for Keeper of Fate
Marissa Spear for Love Is Not Linear
Rachel Craft for Every Color of my Blood
Friday Faraday for The Black Album
Meg Eden Kuyatt for Whatever Happened to Prudence Kaufmann?
Emily Gaines for Defying Death
Michelle Kett for If Hope is Lost
Victory Witherkeigh for The Girl
Lara Ameen for Spaer
Lindsay Chudzik for The Most Cake
Winnie Grey for Beneath the Weight of Willows
Kimberly James for Little Mermaid
Kylie Freeman for Hallowed and Gold
Nancy Scott Hanway for The Criminal Gene