Vicksburg Arts

2025 Tournament of Writers Post Event Press Release

Vicksburg Arts hosted its 11th Annual Tournament of Writers Celebration on April 24, 2025, at Wind + James Event Center in Schoolcraft. Writers of all ages were honored for their creative work in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, with live readings, awards presentations, and the release of Tournament of Writers Collection, Volume XI. This year’s tournament, dedicated to the memory of local storyteller David T. Reisterer, featured a record number of submissions, leading to the publication of two volumes; one for youth and teens and one for adults. Keynote speaker Leeanne Seaver inspired the crowd with reflections on storytelling and courage. Here is the list with the award winners and honorable mentions >>

The Tournament is a program of Vicksburg Arts, made possible through generous support from the National Endowment for the Arts, Meijer, Gilbert & Ivy Bookstore, the Vicksburg District Library, the Vicksburg Foundation, the Michigan Arts & Culture Council, the Gilmore Foundation, and Jumping Dog Design for the design of the book covers.

Press Release TOW Post Event 2025 (pdf)

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About the Tournament

The Tournament of Writers, initially started by Deb Christiansen of Schoolcraft in 2015, is an annual writing competition for authors in Southwest Michigan. The Tournament encourages and promotes local writers with a competition open to new and seasoned writers of all ages. In addition to celebrating writers with cash prizes, the competition provides constructive and encouraging feedback from judges to help participants gain insights from thoughtful readers.

This competition accepts submissions in Poetry, Fiction, and Nonfiction.

A panel of judges scores the submissions using a rubric that evaluates the effective use of language, correct grammar and usage, robust deployment of literary techniques, and creativity. Based on these scores, judges award prizes within each genre, separated by the following age divisions: Youth – Elementary and Middle School (up to 13), Teen – High School (up to 18), and Adult (18 and older).

The Tournament program offers coaching sessions with local authors and bookworms to participants before submissions.

Every entry received for the Tournament of Writers is published in our annual Tournament of Writers Collection. Purchase links are provided below.