This year, given the challenges of meeting in person due to Covid-19, we could not provide our annual workshop to the winners of the contest. Instead, Jack Straw Cultural Center provided coaching sessions online, via Zoom, with writer Jared Leising and actor/vocal coach Meg McLynn, and each student received a recording of their own session.

Write Out of This World now includes a comics track. Creators submitted a science fiction or fantasy comic to this year’s contest. See the winning comics and stories below.

2020 Short Story Winners

GRADES 3-5
1st Place: “Yuni: The Last Warrior” by Saanvi Shah
2nd Place: “Life Needs Water” by Michal Hlavac
3rd Place: “The Frames” by Nathan Brown

GRADES 6-8
1st Place: “Lazy Sunday” by Cecilia Ayres
1st Place: “The Harvester” by Caroline Shirley
2nd Place: “Hunting Medusa in 2099” by Ricardo Gurango
3rd Place: “The Rule Benders” by Camila Figueira

GRADES 9-12
1st Place: “The Treehouse” by Elizabeth Keller
2nd Place: “Festival of Lanterns” by Ava Lee
3rd Place: “Infinite Death” by Sophia Smith

2020 Comic Winners

GRADES 3-5
1st Place: “Jurassic Friends” by Kate Carmichael
2nd Place: “Adela and the Dragon” by Maya Shukla
3rd Place: “The New Planet” by Jamie Engler

GRADES 6-8
1st Place: “Transformation” by Tayen Asplin

GRADES 9-12
1st Place: “The Centricapead” by Veronica Johnson

Jack Straw artist team included Jared Leising, writer; Meg McLynn, vocal coach; Daniel Guenther, engineer; Joan Rabinowitz, executive director.

Artists