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Medium Writers Challenge Official Results (Updated With The Honourable Mentions)
Plus analysis
It’s been a long, nail-biting wait for the results of the Medium Writers Challenge. Originally, the results were going to be revealed at the end of September, then it got pushed back to October 7th and then it got pushed back again to October 12th. But thankfully, Medium has now revealed the results via their Twitter account. So, ladies and gentlemen, what you’ve all been waiting for, here are the official finalists and grand prize winner of the competition:
Death Prompt Finalist
Randi Ragan for her essay ‘Keeper of the Place’
Re-Entry Prompt Finalist
Sarah Hawthorne for her essay ‘The Hope That Holds You Back’
Space Prompt Finalist
Meera Vijayann for her essay ‘The Space Between My Fingers’
Work Prompt Finalist
Hal H. Harris for his essay ‘Black Personhood Does Not Have Equitable Access to the Work of Homeownership’
And the Grand Prize Goes to…
Randi Ragan for her essay ‘Keeper of the Place’
Congratulations to the winners. All four stories were exceptionally well written. My personal favorites were Randi Ragan’s and Meera Vijayann’s.
Analysis of Results
Now, if you’ve been following the competition, you would have definitely heard of some of the controversy or at least qualms regarding the competition and whether it may be rigged. All writing competitions are subjective to an extent but what writers wanted to know was whether there were pre-defined criteria that the judges were looking for. In other words, a checklist of requirements. Thus, eliminating certain writers regardless of writing quality. Many writers stated they didn’t enter for this very reason.
While I can’t say for sure what the judging process looked like, there are certain things that stand out across all four winning submissions which does, unfortunately, make it seem like there was a bias towards certain writers or types of stories.
