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Tournament of Writers

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.

TOW Winners Circle

2025 Winners

2025 Winners

2025 Winners

Vol. XI Tournament of Writers Collection 2025, Youth and Adults


BUY TOW 2025: YOUTH EDITION >>


BUY TOW 2025: ADULT EDITION >>

Download 2025 Winners List

2024 Winners

2025 Winners

2025 Winners

Small Town Anthology X: Southwest Michigan's Tournament of Writers 2024



BUY LITERARY WORKS NOW >>

Download 2024 Winners List

2023 Winners

2025 Winners

2023 Winners

Small Town Anthology IX: Southwest Michigan's Tournament of Writers 2023



BUY LITERARY WORKS NOW >>

Download 2023 Winners List

2022 Winners

2022 Winners

2023 Winners

Small Town Anthology Volume VIII: Entries

from the Eighth Annual Tournament of Writers


BUY LITERARY WORKS NOW>>

Download 2022 Winners List

2021 Winners

2022 Winners

2021 Winners

Small Town Anthology Volume VII: Entries from the Seventh Annual Tournament of Writers



BUY LITERARY WORKS NOW >>

Download 2021 Winners List

2020 Winners

2022 Winners

2021 Winners

Small Town Anthology vol. VI: Entries from the Sixth Annual Tournament of Writers



BUY LITERARY WORKS NOW>>

Download 2020 Winners List

Tournament of Writers

Fiction: short story, something made up.    Non-Fiction: memoir, something based in truth.    Poetry: a poem, any style.

Fiction Rubric (pdf)

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Non-Fiction Rubric (pdf)

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Poetry Rubric (pdf)

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The 2025 Tournament of Writers was made possible by

LOGO IMAGE: block letters National Endowment for the Arts, red and blue lines lead into arts.org url
LOGO IMAGE: lower case meijer in red letters with blue dots over the letters I and J
logo with book and words Gilbert and Ivy a bookstore and more
LOGO IMAGE: red helping hand hold black triangle and rectangle with words Helping Build Futures
LOGO IMAGE: circle with 6 abstract circles inside with words Michigan Arts & Culture Council
LOGO IMAGE: cursive signature of Irving S Gilmore with FOUNDATION in block letters
LOGO IMAGE: block letters JUMPING DOG DESIGN

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