The Judges and Judging

Winners were selected through a blind-judging system in which each entry was identified by a number and judges were unaware of the identity of the writer. The first round of judging was done by local judges. Final judging was done by writers and poets outside the Kenai Peninsula as identified below. They determined first, second and third places and honorable mentions.

Poetry, Grades K to 3, 4 to 6

Kevin Peters is currently a Master of Fine Arts student studying poetry at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He originally hails from Wisconsin, where he grew up on a farm and ate prodigious amounts of cheese.

Poetry, Grades 7 to 9, 10 to 12, Open/Adult

Anne Caston's first collection of poems, "Flying Out With The Wounded," was awarded the 1996 New York University Press Prize for Poetry. Her poems have been widely published here and abroad. Recent poems have been awarded an International Merit Award in Poetry and second place in River Styx's annual poetry contest. She served as the 1996-97 Jay C. & Ruth Halls Fellow in Poetry at University of Wisconsin Madison and as the 1998-99 Jenny McKean Moore Writer-in-Washington at The George Washington University. Anne Caston has completed a second manuscript of poems entitled "The Empress Of Longing." She currently teaches in the Master of Fine Arts Program in Writing at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where she is Assistant Professor of Creative Writing/Poetry. She is a member of the faculty at the 2004 Kachemak Bay Writers Conference.

Fiction, Grades K to 3, 4 to 6, 7 to 9

Janni Lee Simner's fifth novel for young readers, a mystery, will be published by Holiday House in 2005. She's also the author of Scholastic's Phantom Rider trilogy, as well as of more than 30 short stories, including forthcoming appearances in "Cricket" magazine and the anthology "Gothic! Ten Original Dark Tales." She lives in Tucson, Ariz.

Fiction, Grades 10 to 12

Nancy Etchemendy lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is the author of five books for young readers (including the award-winning novel, "The Power Of Un") and several dozen short stories, as well as numerous poems. For further details, surf to http://www.sff.net/people/etchemendy.

Fiction, Open/Adult

Sheila Finch is the author of eight novels and more than thirty short stories as well as articles about science fiction and writing. She teaches creative writing at El Camino College in California.

Nonfiction, Grades K to 3, 4 to 6

Jonathan Harrell is a first-year graduate student in the Master of Fine Arts in Poetry program at the University of Alaska Anchorage. He graduated with an Bachelor of Arts in English from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, in May of 2003.

Nonfiction, Grades 7 to 9

Scott Cook graduated magna cum laude from Western Michigan University, working with writers such as: Jaimy Gordon and J.D. Dolan. He is now attending the University of Alaska Anchorage where he is working with Ron Spatz and Jo-Ann Mapson. He is in Alaska working on his first book of short stories.

Nonfiction, Grades 10 to 12

Haden Polseno-Hensley is a graduate of Vassar College with a degree in English. After several seasons of working for the Park Service in Wyoming he moved to Anchorage to pursue a master's degree in Creative Writing with a concentration in fiction. He has published in the Anchorage Press and is currently at work on about a million things.

Nonfiction, Open/Adult

Marybeth Holleman is the author of "The Heart of the Sound: an Alaskan Paradise Found and Nearly Lost." Her essays, poetry and articles have appeared in numerous journals, magazines and anthologies, among them "The North American Review," "Orion," "The Christian Science Monitor," "Ice-Floe," "Sierra," "American Nature Writing," "Under Northern Lights," and the "Seacoast Reader." She also authored "Alaska's Prince William Sound" and teaches creative writing and women's studies at the University of Alaska Anchorage. She is a member of the faculty at the 2004 Kachemak Bay Writers Conference.