This creative writing contest was founded thanks to a gift from the family of Jeff Sharlet (1942–69), a Vietnam veteran and antiwar writer and activist. It has continued to be supported thanks to funding from the National Endowment for the Arts 2016 Art Works Grant and donations from Amy B. Kretkowski Veterans Law Office and donors to One Day for Iowa 2024. The contest is open to veterans and active duty personnel writing in any genre and about any subject matter.

Prizes: First place: $1,000 plus publication in an issue of The Iowa Review. Second place: $750. Three runners-up: $500 each.

 

Past Winners

 

2024
[Printed in the Spring 2025 issue]

 

First place: Reed Kuehn, “Cheese” (fiction)

Second place: Bronson Lemer, “Over There” (nonfiction)

 

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2022
[Printed in Spring 2023]

 

First place: Laura Joyce-Hubbard, “Flying Superman into Sarajevo” (nonfiction)

Second place: Libby Kurz, “from Bloodlust: A Memoir” (nonfiction)

 

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2020
[Printed in Spring 2021]

 

First place: James Janko, “Fallujah in a Mirror” (fiction)

Second place: Jerri Bell, “He Said, She Said” (fiction)

 

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2018
[Printed in Spring 2019]

 

First place: Eric McMillan, “Animal Cruelty” (fiction)

Second place: Sonner Kehrt, “The Uniform” (nonfiction)

 

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2016 [printed in Spring 2017]

 

First place: Graham Barnhart, “My Pittsburgh” and eight other poems (poetry)

Second place: D.F. Brown, “Ghost of a Person Passing in Front of the Flag” and six other poems (poetry)

 

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2014 [printed in Spring 2015]

 

First place: Katherine Schifani, “Pistol Whip” (nonfiction)

Second place: Brian Van Reet, “The Chaff” (fiction)