Congratulations to the winners, runners-up, and finalists of our 2025 SASFest Poetry Contest. Their contest entries will be published in our anthology, New Poetry From SASFest 2025, edited by Jan Edwards Hemming and Paul J. Willis. Our cover design is another one of Timothy Cummings’ paintings. This is The Poet and the Pearl, acrylic on panel. See more of Timothy’s work HERE or HERE. Many thanks to our judge, Nikki Ummel!

Finalists are pictured below alphabetically from the top, left to right, and their bios are below.

 

Amanda Bales is a queer writer and union activist living in central Illinois with her dog, Axton. She is a Teaching Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and the author of Pekolah Stories (Cowboy Jamboree Press 2021). Her work has also appeared in Southern Humanities Review, the Cincinnati Review MiCro Series, Raleigh Review, and elsewhere.

Kit Evans is a queer poet and writer from Oregon. He is a current MFA student at Pacific University. His poetry has appeared in The Dewdrop, Hiram Poetry Review, THRUSH, Vagabond City Lit and others. When not writing, Kit can often be found next to large bodies of water, or lifting rocks in search of cool bugs.

Ben Hellerstein lives in Indiana and is pursuing a PhD in environmental policy, studying the politics and policy of the transition to renewable energy. He was recently selected as a finalist in the Atlanta Review’s annual international poetry competition.

Ash Helms-Tippit writes fiction and poetry, while also studying children’s literature, queer literature, animal studies, and intersectional feminism. Originally from Alabama, she is currently working on a PhD in English/Creative Writing at the University of Louisiana, Lafayette.

RUNNER-UP: Arumandhira Howard is a Blasian queer writer born and raised in Indonesia (now surviving in Los Angeles). She has received support from Kundiman and Storyknife Writers Retreat as a poetry fellow. Her works have appeared in Honey Literary, The Boiler, The Offing, the Asian American’s Writer’s Workshop magazine, Split This Rock, BRUISER Mag, and SWWIM.

Lauren Howton (she/her) earned a PhD from Florida State University and an MFA from McNeese State University. She previously served as a poetry editor for the Southeast Review and Managing Editor for the McNeese Review. She currently lives in Auburn, Alabama with her corgi, Norman and teaches at Auburn University.

Liz Kingsley‘s poems appear in New Ohio Review, The Round, The McNeese Review, Cagibi, Euphony Journal, Sweet: A Literary Confection, and other magazines. Her fiction has appeared in The William and Mary Review, and her essays have been published in New Jersey Family Magazine and the anthology Blended: Writers on the Stepfamily Experience. She is an MFA candidate at the Rainier Writing Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University. When not writing, she works as an elementary special education teacher. Liz lives in New Jersey with her wife, some of their grown children, and various animals. Her poems live at lizkingsleywriter.com.

Joshua Kulseth earned his BA in English from Clemson University, his MFA in poetry from Hunter College, and his PhD in poetry from Texas Tech University. His poems have appeared and are forthcoming in Tar River Poetry, The Emerson Review, The Potomac Review, The Windhover, The South Carolina Review, and others. His poetry manuscript, Leaving Troy, was shortlisted for the Cider Press Review Publication Competition, and is currently under contract with Finishing Line Press.

RUNNER-UP: Daniel W.K. Lee (李華強) is a third-generation refugee, queer, Cantonese American born in Kuching, Malaysia. He earned his Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at The New School, and his debut collection of poetry, Anatomy of Want, was published by QueerMojo/Rebel Satori Press. Daniel lives in New Orleans with his head-turning whippet Camden. Find out more about him at danielwklee.com, join his Patreon at patreon.com/danielwklee or follow him: @strongplum on Instagram.

Daniel Meltz was raised in the low-rent reaches of New Jersey, 16 minutes from Times Square, and has lived in Manhattan for fifty years. He’s a retired technical writer and teacher of Deaf young people, with a B.A. from Columbia (no honors). Both his first book of poems, It Wasn’t Easy to Reach You, from Trail to Table, and his first novel, Rabbis of the Garden State, from Rattling Good Yarns, have been published just minutes ago in 2025.

Bleah Patterson is a queer, southern poet born and raised in Texas. She has been a Pushcart and Best of Net nominee. Much of her work explores the contention between identity and home and has been featured or is forthcoming in various journals including Electric Literature, Pinch, Write or Die, The Laurel Review, Phoebe Literature, and Taco Bell Quarterly.

WINNER: Jendi Reiter is the author of five poetry books and chapbooks, most recently Made Man (Little Red Tree, 2022); the story collection An Incomplete List of My Wishes (Sunshot Press/New Millennium Writings, 2018); and the novels Origin Story (Saddle Road Press, 2024) and Two Natures (Saddle Road Press, 2016). Origin Story was a finalist for the Big Moose Prize from Black Lawrence Press and Two Natures won the Rainbow Award for Best Gay Contemporary Fiction. They are the editor of the writing resource site WinningWriters.com.

RUNNER-UP: Branwell Roberts (he/they) is a British poet living in Australia. Their work uses classical and historical themes to explore queer gender(s) and sexuality from a trans perspective. Branwell graduated from the MFA program at Manchester Writing School and is currently working on a PhD at the University of Tasmania, writing poetry about the history of Antarctic exploration. Branwell can be found on Twitter (@branwellroberts) and Bluesky (branwellroberts.bsky.social).

Mandy Shunnarah (they/them) is an Alabama-born Appalachian and Palestinian-American writer in Columbus, Ohio. Their essays, poetry, and short stories have been published in The New York Times, Electric Literature, The Rumpus, and others. They won the Porter House Review 2024 Editor’s Prize in Poetry and are supported by the Ohio Arts Council, Greater Columbus Arts Council, and Sundress Academy for the Arts. Their first book, Midwest Shreds: Skating Through America’s Heartland, was released in 2024 from Belt Publishing, and their second book, a poetry collection titled We Had Mansions, is forthcoming from Diode Editions in 2025. Read more at mandyshunnarah.com.

Victoria Sosa is a poet, author, and screenwriter from Lake Charles, Louisiana, currently based in New Orleans. She holds a BA in English Writing from Loyola University New Orleans. Her work, which explores themes of loss, transformation, and healing from a queer feminist perspective, has recently garnered recognition. She was a finalist in the Del Shores 2024 Writers Search and the 2024 Kinsman Quarterly Iridescence Award.

Visit www.sasfest.org for more information on Saints & Sinners LGBTQ Literary Festival.

 

SASFest is grateful to:

Publisher – Rebel Satori Press

John Burton Harter Foundation

Saints & Sinners LGBTQ Literary Festival is a program of the Tennessee Williams & New Orleans Literary Festival. Visit sasfest.org for more information about our annual event.