2025 CCS Writing Competition Winners Announced at CCS Spectrum Launch Party

Alumni Judges Continue the Tradition of Building Community as Judges

"The contests are a way to celebrate the writing and writers at UCSB. I especially love the way we are able to bring together alumni and current students around great writing."

—Kara Mae Brown, CCS Writing & Literature Faculty

The College of Creative Studies (CCS) announced the winners of the 2025 CCS Writing Competitions during the Spectrum Literary Journal Volume 68 Launch Party on June 6 in the CCS Courtyard. Student winners were recognized for their excellence in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and essay writing.

This year’s judges consisted of alumni and literary artists who reviewed student entries and evaluated work that represented the creative range and depth of UC Santa Barbara’s literary landscape. The CCS Writing Competitions are open to all UCSB undergraduates who submit their best work in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and essays, and other genres.

The involvement of alumni as judges has become a defining feature of the CCS Writing Competitions, first envisioned by CCS Writing & Literature Faculty Kara Mae Brown as a way to keep the writing community connected during remote learning. Initially a creative solution, it has since evolved into a meaningful bridge of community building and encouragement between generations of writers. Each year, editors, filmmakers, and authors who once called the College home return to provide their expertise and celebrate the students following in their footsteps.

This year’s alumni judges included:
• Vianna C. Mossman ‘20 (CCS Writing & Literature), Santa Barbara-based fantasy author
• Amelia Rodriguez ‘21 (CCS Writing & Literature), award-winning poet and senior editor at San Diego Magazine, past Spectrum Literary Journal editor
• Komal Surani ‘20 (CCS Writing & Literature; L&S Film Studies), multidisciplinary Pakistani-American writer and filmmaker
• Matthew Choi ‘23 (CCS Writing & Literature), writer and MFA graduate at the University of San Francisco
• Michelle Politiski ’21 (CCS Writing & Literature), poet and MFA student at the University of Oregon
• Brenda Tan ‘21 (CCS Writing & Literature; L&S English, Art History with Museum Studies Emphasis)

Congratulations to UCSB Student Award Winners

Brancart Fiction Prize

Winner ($600): Sofia Mosqueda ‘25 (CCS Writing & Literature), “I Was There When You’d Cry”

“Good fiction keeps you up at night. Good fiction takes no risks. “I Was There When You’d Cry” kept me up at night, and inspired me to take more risks with my own work. From jaw-dropping one-liners to capturing emotions with a visceral honesty, it’s the kind of writing that makes you want to meet the author and ask them why they wrote the story in the first place.”

Judge: Vianna C. Mossman ‘20 (CCS Writing & Literature) is a Santa Barbara-based fantasy author whose adult fiction explores romance, mythic worlds, and the complexities of elite society. Her works include Sea of Night, Darkheart, and Montecito Baby, each exploring love within the settings of fantastical war and high-society.

Richardson Poetry Prize

Winner ($400): Audrey Lin ‘27 (CCS Writing & Literature), “Beckon” and “The Inaugural Taco Bell of China”

“Paired as a set, these quietly moving poems do the brilliant work of showcasing both the poet's playful, nimble command of language and their storytelling prowess. Affection and ambiguity, repetition and innovation—powerful contrasts are at play in both poems, especially a feat within such taut work.”

Judge: Amelia Rodriguez (CCS Writing & Literature ’21) is the author of the poetry chapbook The First Amelia (2024 Gunpowder Press). A recipient of many accolades, she is the senior editor at San Diego Magazine and has written for other national and regional publications, including Rolling Stone. During her time at UCSB, she was a Raab Writing Fellow, Mellon Humanities Fellow, and Spectrum Literary Journal editor, and she is honored to help foster the next generation of CCS poets. She lives in San Diego with her fiancée Michaela and their two cats, Persimmon and Clementine.

M. Garren Tinney Nonfiction Prize

Winner ($500): Nina Jekel (L&S Environmental Studies, Theater), “2010 Grey Honda Civic, 105k Miles”

“The writing is lyrical, vivid, and beautiful. I’m drawn to the way the writer uses her old car to tell us vignettes about growing up and being terrified of the future, even when it is wide open and waiting for us; the writer skillfully reminds us what we sometimes forget— even objects can feel real, sentimental, and beloved.”

Judge: Komal Surani ‘20 (CCS Writing & Literature; L&S Film Studies) is a second generation Pakistani-American writer who grew up in Southern California. Her work crosses genre and medium, but focuses on what it means to come of age as a Pakistani or Indian American woman. While she is mainly a film and television writer, she is also an award winning poet, a published journalist, and continues to work on various fiction and creative nonfiction pieces. She currently lives in Los Angeles with her 187 (and counting) books. As a CCS & L&S alumna, she is a past recipient of the 2018 Richardson Poetry Prize and 2017 Raab Writing Fellowship.

The M. Garren Tinney Nonfiction award honors the living memory of M. Garren Tinney for his passion for writing. This award is one of three writing awards in his name at UCSB, supporting undergraduate writers. The other two are in the Writing Program and the Department of English.

CCS Most Excellent Narrative Prose Contest

First Place ($35): Margaret Gray ‘26 (CCS Writing & Literature), “Gemellus’ Soliloquy”

“In Gemellus’ Soliloquy, speech is obfuscated and estranged from the reader; the very building blocks of language that construct this story become twisted into strange names, and gain spiritual power. There's a sense of formal restraint here, a la Bonomini's Novices of Lerna, through which the story's intellectual tone carries the reader into a distant land. Yet, this new setting feels familiar, as if it's a land not so distinct from our own, and it is perhaps this tension of familiarity with estrangement that imbues this story with such beauty.”

Runner-Up: Sofia Mosqueda ‘25 (CCS Writing & Literature), “Abattoir”

Honorable Mentions: Kaia Boyer ‘28 (CCS Writing & Literature), “Couple in Training – Chapter 1”; Tia Trinh ‘25 (CCS Writing & Literature), “Dreammaker”; Makenna Arase ‘27 (CCS Writing & Literature), “Pomba Gira is a Girl Who Never Sleeps Afraid”

Judge: Matthew Choi ‘23 (CCS Writing & Literature) is a Korean writer and bookseller who loves to hang out with his cats. Previously published through Open Ceilings and Tint Journal, he is also a recipient of the CCS Brancart Fiction Award, and a three-time recipient of the Keith E. Vineyard Scholarship. He received his MFA in 2025 in Writing from the University of San Francisco, where he currently resides.

CCS Most Excellent Poetry Contest

First Place ($35): Sophie Najm ‘25 (CCS Writing & Literature), “Foreword Excerpts”

“These entries were visceral and vivid, but also extremely tender and intentionally worded. Each poem reads like it is one of the poet's vital organs. The vulnerability and decisiveness in these poems is magnetic—you can't help but follow where the poet takes you.”

Runner-Up ($25): Yoyo Na Huang ‘27 (CCS Writing and Literature; L&S History of Art and Architecture), “"Viscosity" / "迁坟 | Casket Lifting" / "Botticelli's She-child" / "Counting Luck"”

Honorable Mentions ($15):

Freddie Baseman ‘28 (CCS Writing & Literature), “but kiss them first”

Margaret Gray ‘26(CCS Writing & Literature), “Jacob Poem” 

Ari Linder ‘26 (CCS Writing & Literature), “*flesh meditation”

Judge: Michelle Politiski ‘21 (CCS Writing & Literature) is a poet, essayist, and literary publicist living in Eugene, OR as a Poetry MFA student at University of Oregon. Her CCS capstone project was a body of essays and poetry on complex trauma, sexuality, and healing. She has published work in You Might Need to Hear This and Pink Plastic House.

CCS Most Excellent Essay Contest

First place ($35): Evelyn Liu ‘25 (L&S Film and Media Studies, Statistics and Data Science), "The Rise of the OVA and the Shaping of 1980s Japanese Consumer Culture"

“I chose this essay because, of the papers I read, it stood out for the originality of its argumentation, comprehensive research, clear articulation, and its ability to maintain and handle complexity throughout. I was particularly impressed by the essay’s ambition to figure OVAs within a broader narrative of capitalist modernity.”

Runner-Up ($25): 

Olive Howden ‘25 (L&S Psychology), "Are white South Africans oppressed? Trump thinks so. The executive order targeting South Africa’s new land law, explained."

Honorable Mentions ($15):

Kaia Boyer ‘28 (CCS Writing & Literature), "Character’s Caves: Perception and Connection in Mrs. Dalloway"

Makenna Arase, "Order and Noise in Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49; Perception Through Transformation"

Alicia Kim, “South Korea Caught on Camera: Molka, Illegal Filming, and Digital Sex Crime”

Judge: Brenda Tan ‘21 (L&S English, Writing and Literature, Art History with Museum Studies Emphasis) is a PhD student in the English Department at Rice University. She studies postcolonial African and Afro-Caribbean literature, third-world Marxisms, peripheral modernism, postcolonial theory, and critical race theory.

Congratulations to these remarkable UCSB student writers! To learn more about these writing awards open to all UCSB undergraduate students, visit CCS Writing Competitions.