It’s time for one of our favorite things—announcing contest results! The Voyage team would like to thank everyone who submitted to our Spring 2021 First Chapters Contest! We’ve enjoyed reading your chapters and are dying to know what happens next! Make sure to keep writing and getting your work out there! We’d also like to thank our contest submitters for their patience. It’s always tough waiting to hear back, and we appreciate you sitting tight as we read through all the amazing submissions. Without further delay, we present to you the winners of the Voyage Spring 2021 First Chapters Contest as selected by our guest judge, NYT Bestselling Author Melissa de la Cruz! We’d also love to acknowledge our finalists, and longlisters for outstanding work as well! One more huge thank you to our guest agents: Stephanie Winter at P.S. Literary Agency and Leah Pierre at Ladderbird Literary Agency! Congratulations, writers!
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First Place Winner: Phoebe Angaye for Rhythm & Beat
Second Place Winner: K. Garcia Ley for The Brain Stitcher’s Daughter
Third Place Winner: Shoshana Surek for Mississippi Sun Dog
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FINALISTS (in no particular order)
Lynne Schmidt for My Sister’s Memories
Isabella Morais for SAFE
Bayana Davis for The Book of Descendance
Kelly Goss for The Other Shore
Elizabeth J. Rekab for The Third Flash
Samantha Panepinto for The Distance to Jupiter
Monica Chin for The Space Between
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LONGLIST (in no particular order)
Regan Humphrey for Justice & Liberty
Amanda O’Donnell for Spin
Melinda Combs for The Rainbow Hunters
Quinn Diacon-Furtado for Our Only Music Was Uproar
Deri Pryor for Sequence
Elise Chidley Clark for The Ransom Traits
Madelin Medina for Call Me Zelda
Nicole Messina for Winterheart
Megan Navarro Conley for Don’t Say I Didn’t Warn You
Nina Moldawsky for Cupcakes for Supervillains
Kelsey Ford for How to Change Your Tune
Rachel Chiong for Doctor Daniri and the Mythical Beasts of the Mundo
Patricia Brooke for You’re Always Perfect When You’re Dead
Elena Nicolaou for The Five Moons
Katie Van Ark for Kiss and Cry
K.C. Finn for The Skin Revolt
Sarah Hawkins for This is How You Love
Benjamin Garcia for Gifted
S. Salazar for Strangers
Amy Braun for Stone Singer
Claudia Ramos for Prep, Lies, and Argyle
Christina Trujillo for Burnt
Sarah Mills for What I Wanted to Say
Zoe Fawkes for The Princess’ Bride
Janaea Eads for Shelling for Peas
Amy de la Force for She of Hammer and Flame
Brigette Stevenson for Shift in the Wind
Sofia Drummond-Moore for Marepine
Mahdis Marzooghian for Death Has None
Kimberly Kim for The Keeper of the Obscure
Amanda Thomas for The Casters
Carolina Ixta Navarro-Gutierrez for Intersections
Kyle Rea for Upstate
Janice Torres for The Vocalist
Nancy Rivera for Prisoners
Anndee Hochman for My Plural is People
Bessie F. Zaldívar for Libertad
Erica Shaw for Savage Aria
Derick Gibbs for Beyond the Aviary
Susan Muaddi Darraj for Faten Salameh WIll Be Seen
Olivia Martello for The Dance of the Sea
Abby Maguire for Girls Like You
Kimberly Kim for When Wind Met Water