Posted on by

Announcing the winners of our 2025 Teen Writing Contest

We are excited to announce the winners and runners-up of our 2025 One Teen Story Teen Writing Contest! We received nearly 600 entries from teen writers across the globe, and narrowing it down was no easy feat. Each winner will receive $500 and publication on our website.

Ages 13-15 Winner: “Rain” by Carys Schiffer

“I felt my face flushing at the fact that I had been caught looking. But then again, what was the harm in looking? She couldn’t possibly know how long I had sat there, quietly observing like a shade.” — “Rain” by Carys Schiffer

Carys Schiffer is a 15-year-old living in West Virginia with her twin sister, mom, and two opinionated pets. She is a freshman at Jefferson High School and enjoys English, Chamber Choir, and History. She writes stories with strong focus on queer protagonists, as well as consuming a plethora of horror and dystopian fiction. She is always encouraged to write by her family, as well as by her incredible partner. You can probably find her reading in a corner somewhere or listening to music.

Runner-up: “A New Destination” by Nora Alikhani

Ages 16-17 Winner: “Something’s in the Water” by Eliza Shannon

“The gaping maw of Passamoonshine Lake was the stuff nightmares were made of. Ominous black water, deeper than the eye could follow, barren save for deadfall and some sleek fish.” — “Something’s in the Water” by Eliza Shannon

Eliza Shannon is a high school senior from Central Maine, just south of Bangor. From a young age, she loved telling stories and was fascinated by ghost tales, folklore, and monsters of any kind. In her free time, she loves reading, hiking, swimming, and watching slasher movies with her mom. Her work has previously been featured in Cricket Magazine.

Runner-up: “Petrichor” by Ava Jekel

Ages 18-19 Winner: “The End of the World” by Claire-Emmanuelle Boucher

“It feels like this is the line everyone uses when they leave: you better come visit. Like a few visits will make everything feel like it used to. Like visiting is the equivalent to not leaving in the first place. Like visiting isn’t a small reminder that they are going somewhere and you aren’t, that they are leaving and you’re the one who’s staying behind.” — “The End of the World” by Claire-Emmanuelle Boucher

Claire-Emmanuelle Boucher is an aspiring Canadian writer from Québec, Canada. She is currently studying Neuroscience at McGill University in Montréal. Her previous work has been published by Font Magazine and B’nai Brith Canada. She writes both in English and in French, and loves to incorporate both languages in her work. In her free time, she likes reading, biking, and playing music.

Runner-up: “You Don’t Get Back a Texas Summer” by Asia Franklin

Thanks to all who entered the contest! Our next Teen Writing Contest will take place in the fall.

Support our mission to publish great teen fiction writers by donating or becoming a supporting patron.

Posted on by

Adina Talve-Goodman Fellow Reading (Virtual Event) March 13, 7-8 pm ET

Since 2019, the Adina Talve-Goodman Fellowship has offered financial support and mentorship to emerging writers without MFAs whose work speaks to issues and experiences related to inhabiting bodies of difference. Join One Story on Thursday, March 13 for a virtual reading with past and current fellows. Participating writers are Ani Cooney, Keith Hood, Hayden May Knight, Arvin Ramgoolam, Nay Saysourinho, Diana Veiga, and Nathan Xie.

Posted on by

Announcing Our 2025 Adina Talve-Goodman Fellow: Hayden May Knight

Together with the Talve-Goodman family, One Story is pleased to announce our 2025 Adina Talve-Goodman Fellow: Hayden May Knight.

Hayden May Knight grew up deaf and gay in the middle of nowhere (Indiana). His writing has appeared in The Coil, Passengers Journal, Sensitive Content Magazine, and elsewhere, and won the 2018 Luminaire Award for Best Prose from Alternating Current Press. He works in disability rights advocacy and public policy, and lives with his scientist husband, Daniel. Hayden writes to reckon with the dignity, fury, and joy of queer disabled life. He is currently writing his first novel, a science-fiction love story about a deaf boy and a blind boy in a world spun out of time.

The Adina Talve-Goodman Fellowship was created in memory of One Story’s former managing editor, the writer Adina Talve-Goodman. This fellowship offers a year-long mentorship on the craft of fiction writing with One Story magazine, and is given to an emerging writer whose work speaks to issues and experiences related to inhabiting bodies of difference. This means writing that centers, celebrates, or reclaims being marginalized through the lens of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, religion, illness, disability, trauma, migration, displacement, dispossession, or imprisonment. Previous winners of the Adina Talve-Goodman fellowship include Keith Hood, Nathan Xie, Ani Cooney, Diana Veiga, Arvin Ramgoolam and Nay Saysourinho.

Finalists for the Adina Talve-Goodman fellowship will all receive two free online courses with One Story. Finalists for the 2025 Fellowship were:

  • Kiian Dawn
  • Irene Jiang
  • Mac Murray
  • Jazz Sanchez

One Story is grateful to the Talve-Goodman Family, our volunteer readers, all of the friends and organizations who helped spread the word about this fellowship, and the many talented writers who took the leap and shared their work with us. Applications for our 2026 Fellowship will open in Fall 2025.

Posted on by

Chasing Down Ghosts and Monsters: An Interview with Puloma Ghosh

On May 1st at our Literary Debutante Ball, One Story will be celebrating four of our authors who have recently published or will soon publish their debut books. In the weeks leading up to the Ball, we’ll be introducing our Debs through a series of interviews.

Today we’re talking to Puloma Ghosh, author of One Story Issue #282, “K,” and the short story collection Mouth (Astra House).

Posted on by

A Body Is Its Own System of Intelligence: An Interview with ’Pemi Aguda

On May 1st at our Literary Debutante Ball, One Story will be celebrating four of our authors who have recently published or will soon publish their debut books. In the weeks leading up to the Ball, we’ll be introducing our Debs through a series of interviews.

Today, we’re talking to ’Pemi Aguda, author of One Story Issue #277, “Breastmilk” and the short story collection Ghostroots (W.W. Norton).

Posted on by

Learning to Sit with Unanswered Questions: An Interview with Uche Okonkwo

On May 1st at our Literary Debutante Ball, One Story will be celebrating four of our authors who have recently published or will soon publish their debut books. In the weeks leading up to the Ball, we’ll be introducing our Debs through a series of interviews.

Today, we’re talking to Uche Okonkwo, author of One Story Issue #248, “Our Belgian Wife” and the short story collection A Kind of Madness (Tin House Books).

Posted on by

The Joy of Discovery: An Interview with Shannon Sanders

On May 1st at our Literary Debutante Ball, One Story will be celebrating four of our authors who have recently published or will soon publish their debut books. In the weeks leading up to the Ball, we’ll be introducing our Debs through a series of interviews.

Today, we’re talking to Shannon Sanders, author of One Story Issue #263, “The Everest Society” and the short story collection Company (Graywolf Press).

Posted on by

Announcing the Winners of the 2024 Teen Writing Contest

We are excited to announce the winners and runners-up of our 2024 One Teen Story Teen Writing Contest! We received nearly 600 entries from teen writers across the globe, and narrowing it down was no easy feat. Each winner will receive $500 and publication in a forthcoming issue of One Teen Story.

Ages 13-15 Winner: “A Piece of Him” by Karli Roth

“Last time I’d played in front of an audience had been at Ryan’s funeral. Last time I’d played Bach’s Aria from the Goldberg Variations in front of others was when Ryan was back for Christmas break, the final time I saw him before the accident.” — “A Piece of Him” by Karli Roth

When she was barely old enough to spell, Karli Roth wrote a dramatic story starring a four-year-old heroine. Why? She was convinced there weren’t enough suspenseful novels with four-year-old main characters. Today, she has taken a lesson from her younger self, and she aims to write stories that resonate deeply with readers. She won second place nationally in the FRA Americanism Essay Contest in 2021, and she enjoys public speaking, theater, and music. As an aspiring novelist, she pens Christian speculative fiction that doesn’t lose its heart in the action. You can join her on this journey at karliroth.com.

Runner-up: “Main-Character Syndrome” by Quentin Lewin

Ages 16-17 Winner: “The Things We Don’t Talk About” by Lily Scheckner

“I tell her the truth: that she just has a bad feeling about my happiness. That she feels it like an itch on her skin, like the jeans that she no longer wears. Screaming the words at her feels like vomiting.” — “The Things We Don’t Talk About” by Lily Scheckner

Lily Scheckner is a high school student and writer residing in Silver Spring, Maryland. She was a finalist for the Montgomery County, MD Youth Poet Laureate and attended Interlochen Arts Camp, where she received a Fine Arts Award for Creative Writing. Her work is published or upcoming in the Malu Zine and the National Poetry Quarterly, where she will be honored as a National Winner for 2023-2024. In her free time, Lily enjoys matcha lattes, oxford commas, and listening to Sufjan Stevens.

Runner-up: “Dear American god, give me your lemons” by Kyo Lee

Ages 18-19 Winner: “Photoelectric” by Elane Kim

“I wanted to tell him, I am trying to stare at the sun here, can’t you see? I am trying to grasp at a moving body, celestial, its incomplete orbit. I am trying to love what I cannot see.” — “Photoelectric” by Elane Kim

Elane Kim is a Korean American writer attending Harvard College. She is the author of Postcards (Bull City Press, 2022). The editor-in-chief of Gaia Lit, she is a 2023 U.S. Presidential Scholar, a 2022 Davidson Fellow in Literature, and the winner of the 2021 Columbia Journal Winter Poetry Contest. Her writing can be found in Poetry, Narrative Magazine, One Teen Story, and more. She is very happy to meet you.

Runner-up: “Friendship, Feigning, Loving, Folly” by Isabel Schumacher

Subscribe to One Story or One Teen Story in print to read the winners’ stories throughout the year. Our next Teen Writing Contest will take place in the fall.

Support our mission to publish great teen fiction writers by donating or becoming a supporting patron.