SWS: Things You Can’t Say Out Loud Challenge Winners
A behind-the-scenes glimpse at the Vocal Curation Team’s top picks from Things You Can’t Say Out Loud.
Welcome back to the Summer Writing Series, and to a challenge that asked you to cross a line most of us avoid.
For Things You Can’t Say Out Loud, we invited you to give voice to the things that usually stay tucked away. The quiet fears, the buried truths, the words that sting a little too much to say aloud. From quiet reckonings and family tensions to grief, shame, and raw defiance, these poems didn’t hold back, and neither did you.
These are the ones that said what needed to be said.
🏆 Winners
i don't want to be a mother. by Imola Tóth
Imola Tóth's poem speaks honestly about something few people are willing to say out loud. We felt the weight behind every line, it’s a piece that says what’s often left unsaid, and doesn’t flinch while doing it.
Authenticity VS. AI by Luna Jordan
Luna Jordan's Authenticity VS. AI brings out the tension between truth and performance in a way that felt really personal. It reads like a dare to stay vulnerable, even when the world offers polished echoes instead.
Your Husband by Lacie Grayson
Lacie Grayson's poem speaks to something deeply painful, and does it without looking away. That line about shrinking smaller is still echoing; you said what most would bury, and it lingers.
Witch by Raistlin Allen
Raistlin Allen's piece stood out for how clearly it captured shame, anger, and eventually strength. There’s a quiet power in how the poem moves from hiding to saying things out loud.
a bitten tongue by Tyler C Clark (he/him)
Tyler C Clark's a bitten tongue carries the kind of tension you can feel in your body. It's raw, angry, and honest in a way that's hard to shake. That final line lands hard and sums up everything that came before it in a way we won’t forget.
🎖️ Runners-up
- I'm Still Counting the Days by Autumn S.
- The Wrong Version by Fatal Serendipity
- When I’m Gone, and You’re Still Here by Dagmar Goeschick
- I Hope You Die Before Me by Theo James Taylor
- Hasbara by River and Celia in Underland
- Revisionist History by M.N. Sterrett
- The Part I Don’t Write About by Angie Craig
- Burnt Napkins by Ellie Hoovs
- This is also by Morgana
- Dare I Say by Mikayla Rose
- I Am by J. Nicholas Merchen
- This House by Riley Forest
- Fragile Soft Bird of Prey by Michele Nampalli
- The Voice Beneath My Skin by Emmie Falbo
- Beneath My Tongue by Tim Carmichael
🏅 Honorable Mentions
- My Beloved, I Wish You Death by Lora Coleman
- We Were Too Little by A. J. Schoenfeld
- Brute Silence by kt
- Checking In by Bride of Sound
- I Blame You by Alicia Anspaugh
- I Don’t Say These Things by Marie381Uk
- e r o d e by Kristen Balyeat
- The Child I'll Never Meet by Bex Jordan
- That word by Mae
- Two Summers by Cali Loria
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SWS: The Second First Time Challenge Winners
Welcome back to the Summer Writing Series, and to our second fiction challenge winners announcement of the season. For The Second First Time, we asked you to write about what it means to return. To revisit a moment, a place, or a feeling, and find that it’s changed. Or maybe it hasn’t, but you have. From second chances to strange reunions to quiet realizations, you delivered stories full of heart, humor, and surprise.
By Vocal Curation Team6 months ago in Resources
Comments (28)
Congratulation everyone!!!❣️❣️❣️❣️♥️♥️♥️♥️
I didn’t realise how many winners and honourable mentions Vocal lists - wowee! Congrats all!
Congratulations everyone
Congratulations!!🎉🎉🎉
Congrats to the winners! Was really hoping to place in this one, but maybe my stuff was too dark lol.
omg life is full of surprises. I enrolled this poem in another challenge where it didn't even get noticed, I'd never imagine to win this one! 😎 Thank you for everyone congratulating ❣️ Vocal has the greatest people I ever "met" online. And congrats to everyone! I read so many great entries in these challenge,I wish we could give an award to all of them 😅
Congratulations fo everyone! 🎉💖🎊🎉💖🎊
Congrats. Great job you lot! 😃 🎉
Congratulations! I look forward to reading some of your entries later.
Congratulations everyone!
Fabulous! Congratulations to all of you!
Congratulations everyone 🙂🎉🌹
I can't stop smiling. Literally told my family as soon as I saw the results and they can't stop feeling good about it either. <3 <3 <3 This is so cool! Congrats to everyone else who has made the list!
Congratulations to all!
Congratulations Imola! And to everyone else!
Thank you for the Honorable Mention. It means a lot for a piece that was so personal to me. And to see my name surrounded by so many other talented writers is humbling. I've read some of these already and can't wait to dive into the rest.
Congratulations to all!!
Oh my gosh - thank you thank you! I'm so honored to be a runner up amongst all this talent!
Big congrats to all!!
Congratulations to everyone who placed in this challenge! 🥳👏🥰
IMOLA YOU WON OMG YASSSSS!!!!!
Congratulations to all the winners!!
Super grateful!! Thank you for the acknowledgement, Vocal! Really appreciate it! Yay!!!
Congratulations to the wonderful winners!!
Congrats to all the winners, runners ups, and honorable mentions!