Joy of the Pen is open for submissions! You can find more information here: https://joyofthepen.topshamlibrary.org/submissions/. Below is the poster for you to share online and everywhere else!

Here are the winners of this year’s Joy of the Pen! The winning pieces are now up!

The Verdi L. Tripp Fiction Award: Anne Britting Oleson for Pillow
Fiction Honorable Mention: Jodi Paloni for Leaving the Land
Margaret F. Tripp Poetry Award: Paul Simpson for Grind
Poetry Honorable Mention: Poetry Honorable Mention: Fred Cheney for That Line I Wisht I Wrote
Richard F. Snow Nonfiction Award: Daphne Gregory-Thomas for My Affair With Medicine
Nonfiction Honorable Mention: Madison Ellingsworth for The Count
The Crowbait Short Play Award: Joe O’Donnell for Meltdown
The Crowbait Short Play Honorable Mention: Gwyneth Jones Nicholson for Mind Over Matter

We are now open for submissions until Oct. 5th! Please check the Submissions tab for all the information and instructions. If you could also share our poster and/or social media graphic, we would be eternally grateful!

The journal has now been updated! Head on over to the front page to read this year’s winners!

Here’s a quick list of our winners and honorable mentions (and a graphic you are all free to share!) We will be updating the rest of the site shortly!

The Verdi L. Tripp Fiction Award: Juliana Delany for “Trespass Point”
Fiction Honorable Mention: Betty Culley for “Widow Maker”
Margaret F. Tripp Poetry Award: Ann VanVolkenburgh Chang for “After”
Poetry Honorable Mention: Cora Kircher for “Ark”
Richard F. Snow Nonfiction Award: Jean Konzal for “Searching for Jenny”
Nonfiction Honorable Mention: Fred Cheney for “Brit”
Nonfiction Honorable Mention: Bonnie Wheeler for “Grandpa’s Porch”
The Crowbait Short Play Award: Josh Gauthier for “Last Call”
Short Play Honorable Mention: Brian Daly for “I’m Leaving My Body to Science”

The Joy of the Pen Reception is postponed due to the weather. It will now take place on Thursday, January 25th at 6pm.

The Joy of the Pen reception has been postponed to January 16th (with a snow date of January 25th) to give our judges more time due to recent events. Thank you for your understanding.

If you’re a kid/teen who usually enters our Joy of the Pen competition, here is another opportunity that replaces it!

Joy of the Pen will be opening for submissions this Saturday! This year, we’re open in the following categories for Maine residents who are 17+: Fiction, Poetry, Creative Fiction and Short Plays. Please click on the submissions tab above for more details instructions. Thanks, as ever, to our sponsors: The Cryer, the Friends of the Topsham Public Library, and The Crowbait Club.

We’re please to announce this year’s winners! We hope you’ll join us to celebrate them at a reception on November 29 at 6pm. Their winning works will be uploaded onto this website soon, and we will also reveal who our judges were this year.

The Verdi L. Tripp Fiction Award: Jim Mentink for “The Seminar”
Fiction Honorable Mention: Lorelei Greenwood-Jones for “Candy House”
Margaret F. Tripp Poetry Award: David Sloan for “Solo”
Poetry Honorable Mention: Cynthia Larson for “Perhaps to Dream”
Richard F. Snow Nonfiction Award: Nancy Browne for “Ricky Rivers”
Nonfiction Honorable Mention: John Reinhart for “Traveling by Platypus”
The Crowbait Short Play Award: Greg Simpson for “3 Hail Mary’s”
Short Play Honorable Mention: Fred Cheney for “Danced to the Fiddle”
TPL Teen Fiction Award: Charlotte Schatz for “To Lend a Hand”
TPL Kids Poetry Award: Luisa Feliciano for “Crow”