Prose Winner
“You Don’t Even Try to Remember Anymore”
Jacob Dimpsey
“You Don’t Even Try to Remember Anymore,” explores a world of love and loss, contemplating the age old question of sci-fi, How do we interact with our new technologies? Dimpsey calls back to ancient legends and myths, restructuring their meaning as a way to enrich the future. There is a school of thought in science called Uniformitarianism that says, The present is the key to the past, and the past is the key to the future. And Jacob Dimpsey sows that into his story flawlessly. It is an extraordinary story reminiscent of film noir, and it all starts with love, robots, and a party.
 

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Poetry Winner
“7 proud lbs ekphrastic”
Deon Robinson
“7 proud lbs ekphrastic,” is a short poem, but it is packed with immense feeling. As the ekphrastic form alludes to, this poem is based on a tweet by Twitter user @eveewing and a video originally posted by Ke’mari Cooper on YouTube. Robinson’s poem grasps exactly what it means to be compassionate, to have the ability to show kindness to others around you. There are many legends across the world about catching fish in a river, those usually do not come with a happy ending. Deon Robinson’s language moves the reader through the emotions of the video, exploring generational growth and what it means to have black excellence.