2025 Pinch Literary Award in Fiction

We’re thrilled to announce the results of the 2025 Pinch Literary Award in Fiction, judged by Tara M. Stringfellow!

1st Place: “The Howara” by Hasan Dudar

“I was drawn into this story from the very first sentence. This piece--as witty as it is heartbreaking--is masterful storytelling with a cast of characters more interesting than the last.”

2nd Place: “Peach Boy Momotaro” by 蘇祺 (Suqi) Karen Sims

3rd Place: “Foothills” by Louise Marburg

As always, Pinch is thankful to the Hohenberg Foundation, which makes our literary contests possible and supports the efforts of the journal.

Tara M. Stringfellow is a former attorney, Northwestern University MFA graduate, and two-time Pushcart Prize nominee whose debut novel and national bestseller Memphis was a Read with Jenna pick and longlisted for the Women’s Prize in Fiction. A cross-genre artist, the author was Northwestern University’s first MFA graduate in both poetry and prose and her work has appeared in Collective Unrest, Jet Fuel Review, Minerva Rising, Women’s Arts Quarterly and Apogee Journal, among others. After having lived in Okinawa, Ghana, Chicago, Cuba, Spain, Italy, and Washington, D.C., she moved back home to Memphis, where she sits on her porch swing every evening with her hound, Huckleberry, listening to records and chatting with neighbors.