The Walter and Nancy Kidd
Memorial Writing Competition
in Poetry and Fiction
The Walter and Nancy Kidd Memorial Writing Competition in Poetry and Fiction (the "Kidd Competition"), held each spring, awards up to $800 in total prizes to poets and fiction writers enrolled as undergraduates at the University of Oregon. The Creative Writing Program invites a nationally known poet and fiction writer to judge student manuscripts. Past judges have included Frederick Busch, B. H. Fairchild, Mark Doty, Rosellen Brown, Mary Gaitskill, Yusef Komunyakaa, Sharon Olds, Gerald Stern, Susan Straight, Edward Hirsch, Charles Baxter, Eavan Boland, Tobias Wolfe, Antonya Nelson, Richard Bausch, Richard Tillinghast, and N. Scott Momaday.
Application Process
- The competition is open to all currently enrolled UO undergraduates. You do not have to be enrolled in the Kidd Tutorial Program to submit or win.
- Entrants may submit in both genres.
- Fiction contestants may submit one story up to 20 pages, double spaced. Poetry contestants may submit up to two poems.
- Attach one cover sheet per genre. The cover page should stipulate: “Kidd Prize,” contestant's full name, UO ID, address, phone, and email, as well as the genre and titles of work submitted. Do NOT put your name anywhere on the manuscript except on the cover page. Each page must include your UO ID (no name), title of your work, and page number.
- Entries must be typed.
- Manuscripts that do not meet these guidelines will be disqualified. Manuscripts will be recycled.
- Entries must be submitted to 104 Alder Building by noon of the deadline posted.
Selection and Award
Winners are announced during the last Reading Series event (late Spring term). We do not notify the winners prior to this event, so all contestants are encouraged to attend.
Past Winners
| 2009 | ||
| Poetry Judge | Richard Tillinghast | |
| 1st prize | Anna Nakano-Baker | "Claire Came Home for New Year's" |
| 2nd prize | Nick Bernard | "The Arborist" |
| 3rd prize | Ross Concillo | "Waiting for the Bus at Night" |
| Fiction Judge | Richard Bausch | |
| 1st prize | Kevin Armstrong | "Camping with Patsy Cline" |
| 2nd prize | Christopher Bradley | "Another Time Capsule" |
| 3rd prize | Kurt Spickerman | "Something Like Happiness" |
| 2008 | ||
| Poetry Judge | N. Scott Momaday | |
| 1st prize | Joey Eberhart-Garah | "The Sea & The Island" |
| 2nd prize | Hajara Quinn | "Country Song" |
| 3rd prize | Shelly Emerson | "Broken" |
| Fiction Judge | Antonya Nelson | |
| 1st prize | Jason Curtis Thayer | "21" |
| 2nd prize | Leslee Chan | "My Grocery List" |
| 3rd prize | Bejamin Woods | "Lost Things" |
| 2007 | ||
| Poetry Judge | Tess Gallagher | |
| <1st prize | Chad Canter | "Looking through my dad's Polaroids of Vietnam" |
| 2nd prize | Kathrein Neall | Misfolded" |
| 3rd prize> | Larissa Nelson | "i drank a flower tonight" |
| Fiction Judge | Bret Lott | |
| 1st prize | Christopher Rowe | "My Father's Horn" |
| 2nd prize | Julian Aaron | "Jarred Tomatoes" |
| 3rd prize | Jason Thayer | "Eyes Like Wet Cement" |
| 2006 | ||
| Poetry Judge | Edward Hirsch | |
| 1st prize | Jared Thomas Moore | "The Thing About Fire" |
| 2nd prize > | Hajara Quinn | "Sketches of My Mother" |
| 3rd prize | Zachary Bond | "Riefenstahl in '22" |
| Fiction Judge | Ehud Havazelet | |
| 1st prize | Shannon Boyer | "The Sound of Dogs" |
| 2nd prize | Sara Keilholtz | "The Splintering of the Talking Stick" |
| 3rd prize | Alan Rawls | "Saratoga Falls" |
| 2005 | |
| Poetry Judge | |
| 1st prize | Kelley McMinn |
| 2nd prize | Amy Mae Schimpf |
| 3rd prize | Jennifer Hill<; Chris Gordon> |
| Fiction Judge | Susan Straight |
| 1st prize | Daniel Flood |
| 2nd prize | Jeff Frawley |
| 3rd prize | Ryland J. Kayin Lee |
| 2004 | |
| Poetry Judge | B.H. Fairchild |
| 1st prize | Jared Moore |
| 2nd prize | Megan Holmes |
| 3rd prize | Amanda Stout |
| Honorable Mention | Iris Moon Benson Wayne Bund |
| Fiction Judge | Frederick Busch |
| 1st prize | Johnathan D. Shaw |
| 2nd prize | Jeff Frawley |
| 3rd prize | Galen Curwen-McAdams |
| Honorable Mention | Caitlin Bagwell |