THE 2025 GOLDEN QUILL WRITING CONTEST WILL OPEN 4/01/2025

Get your words ready!

The SLO NightWriters Golden Quill Writing Contest will open April 1, 2025. In the meantime, please subscribe to our mailing list for updates and occasional news and invitations to special events.

In the meantime, please visit the Submissions page for The NightWriter Review for open calls.

Thank you to our 2024 judges: Tod Goldberg, Anne Janzer, and Marguerite Costigan, and congratulations to our 2024 winners, listed below. All winners will be published in the debut issue of The NightWriter Review, and all entries will be considered for publication.

The Golden Quill Writing Contest is sponsored by the San Luis Obispo NightWriters (“SLO NightWriters”), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a mission of nurturing the Central Coast writing community and providing writing education, opportunities, resources, workshops, and scholarships. The goal of the Golden Quill Writing Contest is to discover and amplify voices in fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry, and the contest is an annual fundraiser for the organization.

2024 Golden Quill Writing Contest Results

Fiction

First Place  S.S. Presby  “Sounds Like Joni Mitchell”

Second Place  Anne R. Allen  “The Lila Segovia Smile”

Creative Nonfiction

First Place  Michele L. Roest “My Favorite Animal Is a Harbor Seal”

Second Place  Rusty Evans “My Wrinkled Brain”

Honorable Mention T.K. Schuberth  “The Stoic Parent”

Poetry

First Place  L.I. Henly “Anatomy of a Train”

First Place  B. Misty Wycoff “Game Time”