Announcing the Winners of Writing Contest #2
Congratulations to Our Outstanding First, Second, and Third Prize Winners, along with Our Fabulous Honorable Mentions!!!
Hello, my friends!
I am thrilled to announce the winners of
’s Second Writing Contest!!! This contest has been a dream of mine for so long and I can’t believe we’ve already reached the conclusion of our second cycle. Wow, time flies!!!I was deeply moved by the many powerful and thoughtful entries I received.
Over 100 people (!!!) submitted work to this contest, making the selection of the winners EXTREMELY challenging. I just want to take a moment to acknowledge the many terrific and fabulous writers out there who submitted. It was an absolute joy and an honor to spend time with your work.
If your work was not selected, please do not be discouraged. There were dozens and dozens and DOZENS of pieces that were truly excellent and I found myself wishing I could publish them all! Don’t give up on your writing goals and please always remember how terrific and talented each and every one of you are.
After careful deliberation, I am delighted to award the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place prizes to our top three phenomenal writers listed below. I will be publishing their thought-provoking and engrossing pieces individually in the following posts (stay tuned!) as well as announcing our honorable mentions, details for the next writing contest, and more.
Again a big, big thank you to all who participated. Every piece I read was truly stellar, and I literally debated myself multiple times about expanding the contest to award even more people and pay even more writers! For all reading this, I hope you will consider submitting to future contests and I hope you will always keep writing. My goal with this contest is only to uplift, inspire, showcase incredible work, and connect you with extremely talented writers, whose work I know you will love as much as I do.
Always remember that there is room on the mountaintop for all of us, you are always enough, and that ideas, success, resources, and attention exist in limitless abundance, so please be kind to yourself, and remember that there is no rush, everything is happening when it is meant to, and we all get to where we want to go by supporting, uplifting, and taking care of one another.
Big congratulations again to our exceptional winners of Writing Contest #2!!!
I am thrilled to showcase your work and honor your achievement. I look forward to continuing to read more from you in the future and it is such an honor to share your work with my audience.
Congratulations & cheers to all who entered!
Wishing you
always,Alex
Now, let’s please give a big round of applause for our top three contest winners!!! Make sure to follow them here on Substack, subscribe to their work, check out their recent pieces, and offer them congratulations on this achievement!!! =)
1st Place Prize: “GIRLS” by , author of Substack’s
Anagha Smrithi is a poet and writer from Bangalore, India. She writes about the body and everyday spaces. She is the author of the newsletter
on Substack.You can also find her poetry published in Anthropocene, Nether Quarterly, Catharsis Magazine, LiveWire, and Delhi Slam Poetry among others. She lives between India and Sri Lanka and enjoys long walks, sunsets, and baking bread.
2nd Place Prize: “From Guilt to Gratitude” by Mei Wen, editor of Substack’s
Mei Wen is a Chinese Filipino essayist who explores her relationship with herself, her home, nature, and art in her work. She often writes in vignettes to stay true to her tangential way of thinking and highlight our entanglements. Since her recent pieces began containing more of her anarchist politics, and to stop being paranoid about authority figures (or her mom) finding her personal essays online, she picked up a pseudonym. In the same vein, she wishes she wrote fiction instead. Today, her writing has appeared in The Tiger Moth Review, diaCRITICS, Spellbinder, The Lumiere Review, Anak Sastra, The Ekphrastic Review, After the Art, and 11 x 9: Collaborative Poetry from the Philippines and Singapore, among others. She edits Pandan Weekly, a bi-annual zine and email newsletter that delivers hearty writing from Asia and the diaspora. Outside of literature, she enjoys embroidery, film photography, and watching cat reels. She lives in Switzerland with her husband and their cat. Instagram: @houseblessing_
Mei Wen’s picture was taken on the day she gardened and practiced permaculture for the first time — an experience she writes about in her second-prize-winning essay “From Guilt to Gratitude.”
3rd Place Prize: “Why I Walked Away From White People” by Dr. , author of Substack’s
Dr. Sundiata Soon-Jahta is a specialist in anti-oppression, conflict resolution, systems thinking, and collaborative culture facilitation. With a doctorate degree in organizational leadership and over 20 years of experience as an entrepreneur, educator, and social change organizer, his work is informed by both theory and practice.
Instagram: @drsundiata
Website: drsundiata.com
Please join me in celebrating the outstanding work of these remarkable writers! Their pieces will be individually published via in the following posts. Stay tuned!!
If you would like to support this publication, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. When you become a paid subscriber, you make it possible for love & liberation daily to remain free for as many people as possible and you also help fund the bi-monthly writing contest. Regardless of your subscription status, thank you for being here. I am sending you all of my love and gratitude. ❤
I’m so grateful that my piece was chosen. Thank you so much for creating this opportunity to share my work with a broader audience with such thoughtful intentions.
#MuchLoveAndLiberation
Thank you Alex!! Thrilled to be recognised.