2025 Rash Award in Fiction and Poetry
The Broad River Review is pleased to announce the results of the 2025 Rash Awards in Fiction and Poetry.
Alan Sincic, of Gotha, Florida, won the 2025 Rash Award in Fiction for his story “Pride of Place.” Jason Mott served as judge. Sincic previously won the 2021 Rash Award in Fiction.
Hollie Dugas, of Las Cruces, New Mexico, won the 2025 Rash Award in Poetry for her poem “A Seahorse’s Short Manifesto on Romance.” Nickole Brown served as judge.
Mott also named two honorable mention stories: “Death’s Burlesque” by Ken Kelly of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and “Desert Currency” by Tyler Stallings of Huntington Beach, California.
Brown also named several honorable mention poems: “All My Life I’ve Hungered for a Pretty Singing Voice” by Peggy Heitmann of Raleigh, North Carolina; “But the Wailing Beneath It” by John Schneider of Berkeley, California; and “On Learning of the Death of W.S. Merwin” by Matthew J. Spireng of Kingston, New York.
The full results of both contests, including finalists, can be found on our 2025 contest page.
The 2026 Rash Awards in Fiction and Poetry will open for submissions on February 1, 2026.
RASH AWARDS
What are the Rash Awards?
In 2010, the Broad River Review began two new contests, called the Rash Awards, named in honor of Ron Rash, a 1976 graduate of Gardner-Webb University. Rash’s first published work appeared in the pages of this literary review (a poem, “Last Night’s Ride” and a story, “Turtle Meat”). Rash grew up in Boiling Springs, North Carolina, home to Gardner-Webb University, and earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Gardner-Webb and Clemson universities, respectively.