SWS: The Road Drops Here Challenge Winners

Spooky season may be in full swing, but we still have one more Summer Writing Series Challenge to wrap up. A huge thank you to everyone who participated, we loved reading your poems and stories. We had a blast, and we hope you did too!

Sometimes the ground shifts before we realize it. One step feels solid and the next starts to slide. That’s where The Road Drops Here begins.

For this challenge, writers were asked to start at the moment the world tilts forward. You came back with poems that captured that feeling of motion and change, of holding on when everything starts to move. Some found beauty in the fall, others traced the quiet after it, but all of them reminded us that every shift opens a new way forward.

🏆 Winners

LIMINALITY by Isabella Nesheiwat

Isabella's piece digs into a moment of chaos that quickly transforms into something intimate and profound. The juxtaposition of the ordinary drive and the cosmic imagery is striking, and the haunting closure left a lasting impression.

My Hometown Has an Insatiable Appetite by J. R. Lowe

J. R. Lowe captures the suffocating grip of a hometown that consumes its youth. The visceral imagery of being devoured hits hard, but there’s a quiet defiance that rises at the end, turning despair into a kind of hope found in connection.

The Road Ends Here by Neli Ivanova

Neli Ivanova's poem doesn't just explore change, it drops you right into that disorienting moment when everything shifts. The imagery is vivid, making the familiar feel strange, and we loved how it captures that charged silence before transformation.

Clench by Dane BH

Dane's piece looks at the pull between what we’ve inherited and what we’re trying to become. The move from softness to clench feels raw and honest, capturing that struggle to feel safe in a world that doesn’t always make room for it.

Waiting on a Park Bench to Meet my Father for the First Time by Teresa Renton

Teresa Renton pulls you into the weight of waiting, sitting with that quiet uncertainty of meeting someone for the first time. It’s reflective and tender, a beautiful mix of nostalgia and connection.

🎖️ Runners-up

• Between Time by Aubrey Rebecca
• Domino Psychoanalysis With Her by The Dani Writer
• 5.11 by Lynn Henschel
• Super Position for A Photo* by Caroline Jane
• Diagnosis Is Metamorphosis by D. J. Reddall
• Should I Pick Up Chinese?' by Judey Kalchik
• The Futurist Pact by Edward Swafford
• ICU by Kai Wilson
• Parenting Neurodivergence by Hannah Moore
• Not Enchanted by Willem Indigo
• Dawn Decision by Kay Knighting
• gasoline by Trinity H
• Before the Fall by Sonia Heidi Unruh
• Act III Inevitable Samsara by Michele Nampalli
• Bealach na Bà by S. A. Crawford

🏅 Honorable Mentions

• Where the Road Drops Down by David Muñoz
• The Kiss by Pixel Floyd
• Pas De Deux by Aspen Marie
• Ever On by Thomas Speer
• Before I Fall by Christopher Falcione
• Dear Ryan by Ryan Barbin aka “Dirt”
• Black veiled honey by Melissa Ingoldsby
• Death of a Daydreamer by D.K. Shepard
• When I see the night sky by PK Colleran
• Salt on My Lips by Nazl

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