The wait is over! Today, the Voyage Team is incredibly happy to announce the winners of our 2022 First Chapters Contest! We were all in agreement that the talent just keeps getting better and better! A huge pat on the back to the writers who submitted and took risks by getting their work out there. Win or lose, we want you all to know how much you are celebrated! A gigantic thank you to our guest judge, Ayana Gray, NYT Bestselling Author of Beasts of Prey, and Beasts of Ruin, Leah Pierre at Ladderbird Literary Agency for assistance with feedback to our finalists, and Sera Rivers at Martin Literary Management for assisting with mini workshops for all our submitters!
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First Place Winner:
Sophia Alapati for Polyphony
Second Place Winner:
Keshuan Chow for For No Mortal Creature
Third Place Winner:
Ali Meyers-Ohki for The Staying Spell
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Finalists (in no particular order):
Neerali Baxi for White Ripples
Addison Horner for Eleison
Rachel Delaney Craft for Every Color of My Blood
Gabriela Miranda-Diaz for Stories from the End of Humanity
Karima Alavi for Yasmeen, Daughter of Baghdad
Valerie Kemp for The Only Exception
Samantha Panepinto for Where is the Edge of the Universe?
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Longlist (in no particular order):
Jamye Smith for Born of Blood
Allie Frost for A Wayward Spark
Flor Salcedo for Worry Dolls
Hades Calabuig for Sunflower Kids
Montana Napier for Forest Dwellers
Stephanie Scott for Come Back Alive
Rory O’Connor for Faith & Falling
Ilana Kramer for Firework Willow
Alexandra Blumhorst for The Election
Emily Li for Lucy Wang and the Dragon Resistance
Maddy Torosian for Children of a Secret War
Elisa Park for While You Were Sleeping
Chelsea Chong for Wunderkind
Kaedyn Nedopak for Gaia’s Song
Melissa Pinhal for The F Word
Meghan Brawley for The Love Journal of Cassie McClain
Sarah McKinstry-Brown for Beautiful Dead End
Jennifer Campanile for Heartbreaker for Hire
Heather Harwood for The Flying Machine
Yoruba Baltrip-Coleman for The Darkening
Karina Martinez for The Boys
Katie Doarn for Introducing the Finches
Sherry Shahan for Love Breathes Under the Ashes
CeCe Heard for Blood on the Field
Cristina dos Santos for Nightmare Junction
Rae Henry for Lazuli
Nathan Bachman for Almost Paradise