Laurie Semler | Chair , Communications Committee , ARTA

This year , sixty-three talented ARTA members entered the 2023 Writing Contest . For the first time , the Travel Vignette category had the highest number of submissions at thirty . Poetry and Flash Fiction entries were down slightly this year at twenty-one and twelve respectively . Despite the lower submission numbers , the quality of those submissions made the judges ’ task of choosing winners challenging .

As usual , many people contributed to the success of the 2023 contest . First , thank you to all the ARTA members who chose to enter their carefully crafted pieces of writing in the contest . Heartfelt thanks to the many ARTA staff members who provided invaluable assistance to make the tasks of running and judging the contest that much easier . The contributions of our judges also need to be acknowledged .

After careful consideration of last year ’ s submission and judging processes , the Communications Committee elected to continue using Reviewr to manage the contest for 2023 . With several suggestions from this year ’ s judges , the processes will be further streamlined for 2024 .

On behalf of the Communications Committee , I would like to congratulate this year ’ s winners . You can expect to see your writing featured in upcoming issues of news & views . For all those who are thinking ahead to next year ’ s contest , watch for information later this year in the magazine , ARTAfacts , and on the ARTA website . Good luck to all and Happy Writing !

TRAVEL VIGNETTE

1 st Place A Place of Quiet Darlene Eisner 2 nd Place Courseulles-sur-Mer , France , June 5 , 2018 William Hart

Honourable Mention

A Moment in England

FLASH FICTION

Margaret Feist

2 nd Place ( Tie )

Honourable Mention

This Space for Rent

Jeff

Ties that Bind

David Routledge

Laurie Dolph

Brian Rurka

44 | arta . net DREAMS FOR THE FUTURE