Announcing the Winners of the
2025 Prime Number Magazine Awards
for Poetry & Short Fiction!

Meet Our Judges

The 2025 Prime Number Magazine Award for Poetry

Jennifer Louvet, who teaches literature at an international school in Hanoi, Vietnam, was named our First Prize winner for her poem “Flowers from the Mouth.” Judge Molly Rice had this to say: “The voice in ‘Flowers from the Mouth’ felt personal and immediately familiar. The message is a daily mantra for me. It harmonizes with one of my favorite poems, “The Strength of Fields” by James Dickey, in which he writes, 'You? I? What difference is there? We can all be saved / By a secret blooming.' The poet’s concepts in this poem of teacher as healer, grace as resistance, kindness as reclamation, speech as offering, the sacred duty of witnessing beauty in sorrow, the dead gifting flowers to the living, and living as a verb of gratitude ring so true to my own hopeful purpose. If poetry is memorable language, ‘My heart is that bird’s wing but nailed to the floor’ stayed cinematically with me for days. In gratitude, my offering for this poem is flowers from my mouth—a bouquet of laurel sprigs, red roses, gold chrysanthemums, and a single white orchid, tied in a gold ribbon.”

Jennifer Louvet holds an MFA from Florida International University. She has been a finalist for the 2023 and 2024 Cider Press Review Book Award, the 2022 New American Poetry Prize, the 2020 X.J. Kennedy Poetry Prize, and the 2019 Ruminate Broadside Poetry Prize. Her work has appeared in publications such as Portland Review, Cider Press Review, The International Literary Quarterly, and more. Jenny teaches literature at an international school in Hanoi, Vietnam, where she has been living for the past eleven years with her husband and two daughters. In addition to spending time with her family, teaching, and writing, Jenny enjoys trail running with friends all over Vietnam. 

As our First Prize winner, Jenny will receive publication of her winning poem in Issue 277 of Prime Number Magazine on September 1, at which time she will receive her $1,000 cash prize. Congratulations, Jenny!

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Runners-Up ($250 and publication in Issue 277):

“To the Postal Worker Pulled Over for Suspected DUI on a Random Tuesday in March” by Sara Whitmore of Vass, North Carolina

“Worry Doll” by Deig Sullivan of New York City, New York

Finalists:

“Pere Lachaise” by Michael Lavers of Utah

“Spring Sunday Three Days Before Double Mastectomy” by Gary McDowell of Tennessee

“Wrongheaded Angels” by Robin Michel of California

“Valet” by Ralph Savarese of Iowa

“When You Ask a Military Brat Where She's From” by Melissa Holm Shoemake of Georgia

This year we received 307 poems from poets in 39 U.S. states and nine countries. Press 53 and Prime Number Magazine thank everyone for supporting our efforts to find and share remarkable voices with readers around the world!

The 2025 Prime Number Magazine Award
for Short Fiction

Theresa Boyar of Missoula, Montana, has been named First Prize winner of the 2025 Prime Number Magazine Award for Short Fiction for her story “Ghost Weather.” Judge Dennis McFadden had this to say: “Our young heroine is stuck at home for three rainy, stormy, gloomy days. Her parents have gone off to try to mend their marriage, leaving her a captive audience of one to the babysitter-from-hell who regales her with ghost story after ghost story, horror upon horror. She's not quite sure she believes. She is, after all, nine years old. But a hurricane is bearing down, and who's to say the owner who died two years ago isn't still inhabiting his crumbling, rotting trailer next door, or that the Grave Stitchers aren't really real? Our heroine is naturally relieved when her parents come home early. Until she isn't. ‘Ghost Weather’ is by far the funniest sad story you'll read today.”

Theresa Boyar’s fiction, poetry, and essays have appeared in The Florida Review, Lost Balloon, Poet Lore, Juked, Smokelong Quarterly, and Tar River Poetry. Her essay “Peaches” was selected as a Notable Essay of 2000 by the editors of the Best American Essays series and her chapbook Kitchen Witch was published by Dancing Girl Press.

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Runners-Up ($250 and publication in Issue 277):

"Billy's Paradox" by Steven Lang of Minnesota

"Summer Always Leaves in a Song" by Steph Rantz of North Carolina

Finalists:

"Cuties" by Michael Cullinane of Illinois

"The Coldest Day" by Stacey Gordon of California

"Indomitable" by Mark Havlik of South Carolina

"My Huckleberry Friend" by Mark Hersh of Illinois

"Yellow Line" by Daniel Reiss of Tennessee

"A Very New Discovery" by Ann Selby of Oregon

"Last Dance" by David Waters of California

This year we received 282 stories from writers in 35 U.S. states and ten countries. Press 53 and Prime Number Magazine thank everyone for supporting our efforts to find and share remarkable voices with readers around the world!

The 2026 Prime Number Magazine Awards
for Poetry and Short Fiction
Will Open for Entries, January 1, 2026

Before entering, please read the following guidelines carefully

Entry period: January 1 to March 31, 2026 (midnight EASTERN time)

Judge for Poetry: Terri Kirby Erickson, author of seven collections of poems including Night Talks: New & Selected Poems

Judge for Short Fiction: Dennis McFadden, author of Jimtown Road: A Novel in Stories, winner of the 2016 Press 53 Award for Short Fiction

First Prize in Each Category: $1,000 and publication in Prime Number Magazine, Issue 293, Sept-Dec 2026 (a Press 53 online publication)

Two Runners-Up in each category receive $250 plus publication

Announcement: Winners, runners-up, and finalists will be announced no later than July 1, 2026 (hopefully sooner)

Reading Fee: $15

How to Enter the Prime Number Magazine Awards

Entries are only accepted online via Submittable

Poetry: Submit one (and only one) unpublished poem, no more than three pages in length in standard 12-pt. type. (Times, Garamond, etc). Make sure your name does not appear on the page with your poem.

Short Fiction: Submit one (and only one) unpublished short story of up to 5,300 words, with title and word count, double spaced with numbered pages in standard 12-pt. type. (Times, Garamond, etc). Make sure your name does not appear on the manuscript.

Multiple entries: Multiple entries are accepted, but you must enter each poem and/or story individually and pay the reading fee for each entry.

Simultaneous submissions: Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but please withdraw your entry via Submittable if it is accepted elsewhere. You may not replace the withdrawn poem or story with another poem or story. Reading fee is not refundable.

Editing entry: If you discover an error before the deadline and wish to replace your entry with a newly edited version, request "Open Editing" via Submittable. Requests made after the deadline will not be honored.

Judging: All entries are read blind. Judge is asked to disqualify any entry that is recognized, so please use your best judgment.

Eligibility: Contest is open to writers anywhere in the world, 18 years of age and older, who write in English.

Note: Press 53 and Prime Number Magazine editors and family members are not eligible. Authors who have published a book-length collection with Press 53 are not eligible. Writers whose work appears in anthologies published by Press 53 or have previously published in Prime Number Magazine are eligible.

Disclaimer: Prime Number Magazine reserves the right to extend the deadline if deemed necessary. Only unpublished works are eligible. Reading fees are non-refundable. Entries with author's name appearing anywhere on the manuscript will not be considered. No refunds will be made. Entries withdrawn from the contest will not receive a refund. All entries must be original to the author.

Questions/Comments should be directed to Kevin Morgan Watson, Publisher & Editor in Chief of Press 53 and Prime Number Magazine.