Spillwords Press Awards 2025
Author of the Year
NOMINATIONS
- Joseph L.M. Sturm
- Dawn Pisturino
- Ash Douglas
- Antonia Wang
- Lisa H. Owens
- Melissa Lemay
- Teodora Vamvu
- Ernie Stricsek
- Lou Storey
- Sanu Sharma
- Gabriella Balcom
- Michael McCarthy
- James Nelli
WINNER
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JULY 2024 AUTHOR OF THE MONTH / 2024 AUTHOR OF THE YEAR at Spillwords.com
Melissa Lemay lives in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, with her children, cats, and dog. She writes about God, addiction, trauma, healing, motherhood, and many other things. She enjoys spending time with family, drinking good coffee, and being outdoors. She loves animals. Her poem, "Ephemeral," was chosen as Poetic Publication of the Year for 2023 at Spillwords Press; she was Author of the Month for July 2024; and Author of the Year for 2024. Find her at Melissa Lemay at WordPress, Collaborature at Blogspot, and at dVerse Poets Pub.
Latest posts by Melissa Lemay (see all)
- There is a Sadness - September 28, 2025
- I Was Human - July 1, 2025
- Tiny Paper Boats - April 2, 2025
Publication of the Year (Poetic)
NOMINATIONS
- This World is Yours by Michael L. Utley
- Tapestry of Dreams by Ginny M. Jones
- A Squirrel’s Front Teeth Never Stop Growing by Barbara Harris Leonhard
- Haunt by Emma Wells
- Empty Lines by Smitha V
- Treats Only, Please! by Lauren Scott
- In Your Face by Ximena Escobar
- Black Flies by David Estringel
- Song of Soul by Suman Pokhrel
- Isn’t It a Pity? by Daedalus Chaos
- Worn Slap Out by Joni Caggiano
- Sentimental Ebb by Aurora Kastanias
- Birth Dance by SR Inciardi
- Ethereal Encounter in the Night’s Embrace by Yasmin Hemmat
WINNER
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A SQUIRREL’S FRONT TEETH NEVER STOP GROWING by Barbara Harris Leonhard
Publication of the Year (Non-Poetic)
NOMINATIONS
- Miriam and Her 13,149 Days by Janete Cabral
- The Grand Adventure by Jim Bartlett
- The Seagull by Patricia Furstenberg
- Precious Moments by Valli Henry-Boldini
- A Christmas Heckler by John Christopher
- Moccona With Two Sugars by Sarah Kelleher
- Dunker Church by Robert Walton
- One Life to Live by Lise Rowlandson
- Kaivopuisto by S. Anand
- Adrift by Julie London
- Tasseography by Dominic Rivron
- Murmurs by June Hunter
- New Beginnings by Lisa Rivers Kiesling
- The Night My Daughter Never Came Home by Diana Burns
WINNER
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A CHRISTMAS HECKLER by John Christopher
Publication of the Year (International)
NOMINATIONS
- Willow! In an Ocean of Green! by Thaddeus Hutyra
- Namalowałeś… by Danuta Czerwińska Murawska
- No te Olvides de Mi by Francisco Bravo Cabrera
- The Apple Tree of Paradise by Marian Dziwisz
- El Primero by José A Gómez
- Rzeka by Mirosława Stojak
- Summer Haiku by Maurizio Brancaleoni
- Ay! Pobre Corazon by Nancy E. Campos
- Boquiblando by Alexis Soto Ramírez
- Gli Alberi di Gaza by Francesco Abate
- Soli by Natalia Castelluccio
- Coś do Powiedzenia by Katarzyna Koziorowska
- Significar Ninguna Vez by Romulaizer Pardo
- Złoty Ryngraf Nieba by Katarzyna Dominik
WINNER
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NO TE OLVIDES DE MI by Francisco Bravo Cabrera
Contributor of the Year (Honorary Award)
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We are proud to honor Michael McCarthy as Spillwords Press Contributor of the Year 2024, celebrating his remarkable literary journey with us since 2020. Through his compelling short stories and, most recently, his captivating 17-part series, Michael has made a profound impact on our literary community. We extend our heartfelt gratitude for his steadfast support, creativity, and dedication to the written word.
I'm British and have been living with my German born wife in s.w. Germany for 30 years. I've been writing short stories for many years and they have appeared on Fictionontheweb, Short FictionBreak, Literally Stories, Spillwords and other sites. I also have a story in the book The Best of Fiction On the Web.
Latest posts by Michael McCarthy (see all)
- Top of the Shop - November 16, 2025
- The Floaters - June 5, 2025
- To Dirk & Else - January 9, 2025
Socialite of the Year (Honorary Award)
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We are pleased to honor The Spillwords Press Socialites of The Year 2024. These individuals embody the spirit of our community by fostering connections with fellow writers on Spillwords.com, celebrating the achievements of others, and advocating for our global literary movement through social media—all while enriching our platform with their own outstanding literary submissions. Your dedication and ambassadorship are truly appreciated.
I am a mother and grandmother who enjoys writing but usually just for my own pleasure. I was born in Essex but spent many of my adult years in various overseas wherever my husband was working. I studied Sociology originally at University but began teaching English as a Foreign Language while abroad. On our return to the UK I began working in adult education teaching Literacy and Numeracy but always had a passion for Early Years education. As such I retrained and spent a number of years working as an early years practitioner, until I retired in November 2019. I now live in Leicestershire and have two grown up children and two young grandchildren with whom I love to play and read stories to.. During Lockdown I wrote a number of little short stories for them, which i recorded and shared with them just for fun. My first little children's story book Off to the Beach was published by Bumble Bee Books (part of Olympia Publishers) in April 2021. It really was a lockdown project!
Latest posts by Nina Taylor (see all)
- I’m Going on a Job Hunt - September 1, 2025
- Off to the Shops - June 1, 2025
- The Easter Egg Hunt - April 20, 2025
NOVEMBER 2025 AUTHOR OF THE MONTH at Spillwords.com
After a long career of tinkering in telecommunications, Jim Bartlett switched to tinkering with words, both, of course, requiring a stretch of the imagination. He has since been fortunate to have a number of stories, ranging from flash to novella, featured in Fiction on the Web, CrimeSpree Magazine, Short-Story.me, Ontologica, The Scarlet Leaf Review, Fairlight Books and a number of other wonderful publications. Most recently one of his stories was featured in the print anthology, The Best of Fiction on the Web, 1996 – 2017. While mentally he strolls along a warm California beach with his wife and golden retriever (shhh, she doesn’t know she’s a dog), physically they reside on a special little island in the Pacific Northwest.
Latest posts by Jim Bartlett (see all)
- Unmasked - October 27, 2025
- The Dodgers Hat - April 27, 2025
- Christmas Gets Stuck in Concourse C - December 15, 2024
David's stories have appeared in Duality books, Impspired Magazine, Punk Noir, Friday Flash Fiction and performed on Resonance FM radio (UK). He was commissioned to adapt and direct his short story 'Into The Breach' for the 2021 Rise of the Resistance Festival, screened at Bloomsbury Theatre London. His stage play Shinwell was recently published by Impspired Books. David was a founder member of punk band Vee V V. He finds his stories while he's out and about, or they find him... He lives with his wife and family in London.
Latest posts by David Milner (see all)
- From Here to Identity - October 14, 2025
- Distracted Times - July 27, 2025
- Sweeney’s News - April 4, 2025
JUNE 2024 AUTHOR OF THE MONTH at Spillwords.com
Lisa H. Owens, a retired flight attendant and former humorist columnist, resides in Weatherford, Texas with two rescue dogs, a clutch of struggling houseplants and a wild possum named Harry, who’s lived beneath the backyard shed since he was a leggy adolescent. She began writing when she was 56, her first published story being a horror-memoir about the time she was nearly abducted by Ted Bundy at a shady motel in Pensacola, Florida in 1978. Over two hundred of her stories and poems have been featured in dozens of anthologies and magazines, including: Flash Flood Journal, The World of Myth Magazine, Instant Noodle Lit, 101 Words, 100-Word Story, Spillwords, WOW! (Women on Writing), Globe Soup, Coping Magazine, Saddlebag Dispatches, Owl Canyon Press, among others and narrated on podcasts Scare you to Sleep, Weird Christmas, Creepy Pod and The Poet’s Lounge. She favors humor and mild horror and isn't afraid of spiders and snakes. Her family is often mortified to find Easter Eggs revealing skeletons hidden in the closet within her work. Though they won’t admit it, they secretly love it. Coming in 2026, the release of a collection of Lisa's multi-genre short stories.
Latest posts by Lisa H. Owens (see all)
- The Annual Ritual Set Forth by the Apparition of Baron Willoughby - October 31, 2025
- The Art of Peeling an Egg - June 15, 2025
- Thank You for Choosing BOSS Journeys - December 17, 2024
MARCH 2023 AUTHOR OF THE MONTH at Spillwords.com
Philippine-born Michelle Navajas, currently residing in Malaysia. Michelle authored the book “After – Rain Skies: A Million Stars” for PWW during their Million Stars campaign. Graduated with a Master of Education majoring in English in the Philippines, Michelle was a former college professor, teaching literature, speech & oral communication, creative writing, drama, and theatre arts. Michelle is active in her writing profession and works as a freelance creative writer. Michelle passionately blogs at WordPress at michnavs, where you can find her prose and poetry on love, life, motherhood, and her advocacy on abuse and violence. Her poem “Again” is published on three platforms, on MEDIUM - an International Writers and Readers Space, AFRICA WRITERS CARAVAN, and at WOMAWORDS LITERARY PRESS.
Latest posts by Michelle Ayon Navajas (see all)
- Dear Father - June 15, 2025
- Stars Fled From Your Eyes - March 8, 2025
- Rainbow (An Ameri-Ku) - February 15, 2025
I enjoy writing flash fiction, short stories and some poetry and have been a member of a local writers' group for a few years. Have only recently begun submitting my work for publication online. I'm originally from UK but have called Australia home for more than 50 years.
Latest posts by Mike Henry (see all)
- Colours of Nature - September 26, 2025
- Murphy’s Milk Bar - May 23, 2025
- Love Speaks All Languages - February 14, 2025
OCTOBER 2020 AUTHOR OF THE MONTH at Spillwords Press
Sheila Henry was born in Trinidad, West Indies and became a citizen of the United States where she resides. Her writing style can best be categorized as Visual Poetry, blending emotion and vision into a poem or story of color. Her poems and short stories are featured in several magazines, online literary journals, numerous anthologies (Literary Yard, Cafe Lit magazine.uk, Imspired Magazine and Clarendon House Publications to name a few) and in Youtube series Poetica 2. Sheila was Author of the Month at Spillwords Publications in October of 2020 and was also recognized in “Who’s Who of Emerging Writers of 2020” published by Sweetycat Press. “Stream of Conscious Flow” is her first poetry collection available at Amazon.
Latest posts by Sheila Henry (see all)
- Mortality - November 5, 2024
- Repentance - September 13, 2024
- Inspiration - June 11, 2024
DECEMBER 2024 AUTHOR OF THE MONTH at Spillwords.com
Gabriella Balcom lives in Texas with her family, works full-time in the mental health field, and has loved reading and writing her entire life. She writes fantasy, horror, sci-fi, romance, literary fiction, children's stories, and more, and loves great stories, forests, mountains, and back roads. She has a weakness for lasagna, garlic bread, tacos, cheese, and chocolate, but not necessarily in that order, and adores Chinese, Italian, and Mexican food. Gabriella has had 360 works accepted for publication, and won the right to have a novel published by Clarendon House Publications when one of her short stories was voted best in the anthology in which it appeared. Her book, On the Wings of Ideas, came out afterward. She was nominated for the Washington Science Fiction Association’s Small Press Award, and won second place in JayZoMon/Dark Myth Company’s 2020 Open Contract Challenge. Gabriella's novelette, Worth Waiting For, was then released. She self-published a novelette, Free’s Tale: No Home at Christmas-time, and Black Hare Press published her sci-fi novella, The Return, in 2021. Her horror novella, Down With the Sickness and Other Chilling Tales comes out in November of 2022, and four others pend publication.
Latest posts by Gabriella Balcom (see all)
- As Thanksgiving Approaches - November 27, 2025
- A Halloween to Remember - October 31, 2025
- To the Liars Who Hurt Us - August 29, 2025
MAY 2022 AUTHOR OF THE MONTH at Spillwords Press
Born and raised on the prairies of Manitoba Canada, along the Red River and just south of Lake Winnipeg. Then Alberta and ten years in the Rockies, just above Montana. The last decade in the Canadian Gulf Islands. People, ideas and stories set the stage of my poetry and writing. Music and art fill my days and verse fills my head. I feel the fortunate one and share this world with my life partner.
Latest posts by Gerry Stefanson (see all)
- Bouleversant - November 13, 2025
- First Date - October 13, 2025
- Up In Smoke - September 12, 2025
In March 2018 aged 55 I wrote my first ever poem. I remember the day very clearly. I had recently had my 5 year post breast cancer treatment review, all had gone well and emotions were very powerful at that time. I found myself reflecting on the previous 5 years and words just seemed to flow naturally. Since then I have had several other poems published and in July 2021 I was absolutely thrilled when I was awarded Publication of the Month at Spillwords. Poetry and photography have both been very therapeutic and healing for me; I found a creativity within me that I didn't realise even existed. I now present some of my poetry alongside a series of non-clinical photographs called 'Focus on Emotions' to help people understand the emotional impact of a cancer diagnosis. I am also an award winning complementary therapist, keen photographer and write as a guest blogger. I live in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England - home of the pottery industry and affectionately known as 'The Potteries'. I enjoy spending time with my husband and family and when possible we love to get away in our motorhome. My hobbies include writing poetry, photography, the theatre, orchestral concerts and cycling. My poetry is influenced by personal experience but written in a style that I hope others can connect with.
Latest posts by Diane Leopard (see all)
- A Friend in You? - November 10, 2024
- Because of You - March 31, 2023
- Only in My Dreams - July 6, 2021
Series Recognition
We are delighted to acknowledge the showcased series and their respective authors throughout the year 2024:
When Olivia Met K by Michael McCarthy (The life and loves of a formidable woman of magnetic allure and her enduring lover)
The Eleventh Tome by Tim Law (Imagine a place where religion and magic are outlawed, replaced by an obsession with the written word)
Passages by Gerry Stefanson (Poems that partner a life at sea to a life as lived)
Robyn Finds Poetry by Robyn MacKinnon (A compilation of haiku, found poetry, complemented by accompanying illustrations)
MMXXV
Spilled Words is what we offer one and all.
A website offering fresh, original and exclusive material by writers who espouse the philosophy that “Words Matter” and believe that imagination is the seed of accomplishment.
We are passionate about the world we inhabit; Aware there are two sides to every story. Persistent in our pursuit of all points of view.
A place to think, to laugh, to shed a tear. Where words are gifts that feed the soul; ignite a flame within the heart; excite the recesses of the brain; spark passions and concerns; inspire the conscious and subconscious.
Join Spillwords for this and more…
A website offering fresh, original and exclusive material by writers who espouse the philosophy that “Words Matter” and believe that imagination is the seed of accomplishment.
We are passionate about the world we inhabit; Aware there are two sides to every story. Persistent in our pursuit of all points of view.
A place to think, to laugh, to shed a tear. Where words are gifts that feed the soul; ignite a flame within the heart; excite the recesses of the brain; spark passions and concerns; inspire the conscious and subconscious.
Join Spillwords for this and more…
Latest posts by Spillwords (see all)
- Bonny Dundee - December 7, 2025
- Snowdrops - November 30, 2025
- A Pilgrim’s Way - November 23, 2025
