By Randi Bjornstad

They won’t know exactly who has won what until May 22, but the 14 finalists in Wordcrafters in Eugene’s 2025 Fiction Fantastic Youth Story Contest have been selected. The youthful authors will learn at an awards ceremony at 6 p.m. that day who has won first, second, third, and honorable mention placements. This is the 12th year of the fiction-writing competition, which Wordcrafters estimates has inspired young people to write 2.1 million words.

The process

This year’s contest garnered 90 entries from students at 28 schools throughout the county, with this year’s productivity pegged at 138,171 words.

Winners will receive monetary prizes, and their stories will be published in Wordcrafters’ annual anthology, titled Echoes of the Future. The annual contest is open to Lane County students in kindergarten through 12th grade, including public, private, charter, and home school educational programs.

The contest was judged by 26 volunteers, mostly writers and educators, who read and scored stories in grades 3-5, middle school, and high school age categories. Students in Kindergarten through second grade were not part of the same judging process but are screened, and one entry is awarded the K-2 Spotlight.

Finally, the finalists (alphabetically within age groups) and their titles

K-2 spotlight:

Hazel Rallen, Ridgeline Montessori Public Charter School (Eugene) — The Secret and Magical Garden

Elementary:

Helen Nunes, Fairfield Elementary School (Eugene) — The Warm Arctic

Ivy Olszewski, Ridgeline Montessori Public Charter School (Eugene) — Roses

Hunter Penrod, Creslane Elementary School (Creswell) — Land of Fire — The Beginning

Paige Stutzman, Oaklea Middle School (Junction City) —  The Right Turn

Middle School:

Violet Dunlop, Kennedy Middle School (Eugene) — Triple Dog Dare

Summer Rose, Bridge Charter Academy (Lowell) — The Blood Fog

Juniper Vold, Cascade Middle School (Eugene) — Wishing for Purple

Adrienne White, Cal Young Middle School (Eugene) — Strange Boy

High School:

Brianna Bird, Springfield High School (Springfield) — Sir Gwendolyn the Anxious

Ishika Chakraborty, South Eugene High School (Eugene) — Superscript

Emmett Coughlan, South Eugene High School (Eugene) — Birdsong

Michelle Diaz, Homeschool/Independent Study — Duty of a Killer

Kathryn Dieterle, South Eugene High School (Eugene) — Ragile Thissideup: A Christmas Tale

About Wordcrafters in Eugene

Wordcrafters in Eugene is a nonprofit literary arts organization celebrating over a decade of helping writers find their voices and tell their stories.

Our mission: to empower writers and readers by increasing access to community, craft, and inspiration. We provide a home for sharing knowledge and stories with each other and future generations to cultivate a more empathetic, creative, and courageous world.

Wordcrafters offers classes, workshops, and community gatherings for adults and youth, including creative writing summer camps,  monthly workshops for youth, the annual Fiction Fantastic short story contest, and Writers in the Schools residencies for underserved schools in Lane County.

Learn more at wordcrafters.org