It’s with great pleasure that we announce the winners and finalists of the 2025 swamp pink Prizes in Fiction, Nonfiction, & Poetry. The winners will each receive $2,000 and their work will appear in swamp pink no. 21 this September.

We received several outstanding entries, and after much deliberation our judges have made the following selections.

Afabwaje Kurian selected Mary Jean Babic’s “Your One-Year-Old, Your Two-Year-Old” as the winner of the swamp pink Fiction Prize.

Ivan Suazo’s “How to Disappear Completely” and Madison Jozefiak’s “Artisanal Soap” were chosen as fiction prize finalists.

Paul Tran selected Samuel Piccone’s “Spaceship Earth” as the winner of the swamp pink Poetry Prize.

Jennifer Militello’s “Romance in a Capitalist Age” was chosen as the poetry prize finalist.

Grace Talusan selected Brandon Toh’s “The Difference Between Ghost and Ghost and Ghost” as the winner of the swamp pink Nonfiction Prize.

Alexandra Dane’s “Counting the Cats” and Thuy Phan’s “Accepting My Dad’s Adidas Shirts” were chosen as nonfiction prize finalists.

Congratulations to all of these wonderful writers! We are grateful to everyone who entered and are happy to have had so many exceptional stories, poems, and essays to consider.

We’re already looking forward to next year’s Prizes, which will begin accepting entries on January 1, 2026.