SQN - Sine Qua Non - Issue 1 - Journal - Page 127
Chris Watkins is a genderqueer poet and environmental activist. They earned their PhD
with a focus in ecopoetics from Florida State University. They now work in FSU’s O昀케ce
of Sustainability, and their poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Poetry Magazine,
Harvard Review, and Ecotone among other journals. Their debut collection The Drag
Gospel of Queer Jesus is forthcoming with Saturnalia Books in 2026.
Creative Prose
First Prize Winner—Creative Prose
Teresa Milbrodt has published three short story collections: Instances of Head-Switching,
Bearded Women: Stories, and Work Opportunities. She has also published a novel, The
Patron Saint of Unattractive People, a 昀氀ash 昀椀ction collection, Larissa Takes Flight:
Stories, and the monograph Sexy Like Us: Disability, Humor, and Sexuality. Milbrodt
is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Roanoke College, and teaches 昀椀ction,
speculative 昀椀ction, poetry, and disability studies. She loves cats, long walks with her MP3
player, independently owned co昀昀ee shops, peanut butter frozen yogurt, and texting hearts
in rainbow colors. Read more of her work at: http://teresamilbrodt.com/homepage/
Runner-up Winner—Creative Prose
Dean Gessie is an author and poet of global renown. Among dozens of honors, Dean won
the Aesthetica Creative Writing Award in England, the UN-aligned Poetry Competition
in Finland, the Enizagam Poetry Contest in California, the COP26 Poetry Competition in
Scotland, the Samuel Washington Allen Prize in Massachusetts, the Southern Shakespeare
Company Sonnet Contest in Florida, the Indigo Open Prize in England, the Draper’s Guild
Short Story Contest in New York, the Ageless Authors Poetry Competition in Texas, the
Creator Award from CAPTRS in America, the Frank O’Hara Prize in Massachusetts,
the Editors’ Prize from the Spoon River Review in Illinois, the Allingham Arts Festival
Poetry Contest in Ireland and a Creators of Justice Literary Award [Fiction Category]
from the International Human Rights Art Festival in New York. Elsewhere, Dean won
the Periscope Open Fiction Prize in England, the Angelo Natoli Short Story Award in
Australia and the Half and One Literary Prize in India. Dean’s short story collection,
Anthropocene, won three international awards and his latest poetry book, goat song, won
the Seven Hills Literary Competition in Florida for best poetry collection published since
2020.
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