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Avery Luft’s short story, “Between The Cracks,” is a superb balance of style, place, and characterization. Ellie, the teenage narrator, speaks to us with a voice of hurt, longing, and hope as she tries to navigate her way out of oppressive loneliness. Despite her insecurities, she makes a courageous effort to be accepted at last. What she finds at the boat dock, a place that fascinates her, is a devastating betrayal. She accepts her irrevocable defeat there, and the long-abandoned dock becomes both her solitary refuge and her dead end.
— Anonymous judges notes on "Between The Cracks," Winner of the Beyond The Frame Contest for 2025
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The essay lyrically captures how childhood spaces can provide poignant meditations on memory, identity, and writing as a means of survival. It pulses with longing, reminding us of how the past lives within us and imprints itself onto the walls of our childhood environments. Luft achingly captures the coming-of-age experience in a room filled with ghosts and glowing plastic stars, writing: “So much has changed, yet almost nothing has at the same time. I am fourteen. Or sixteen. Or nineteen... still stuck between the blue lines on a sheet of cheap notebook paper.” This intimate, atmospheric piece is steeped in a nostalgia that quietly bruises.
— Darius Stewart in response to "Glow In The Dark Stars," runner up for the Literary Nonfiction award for 2025
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A studied look at place, this narrative essay paints an aching and gorgeous picture of childhood while also revealing how loss is so often present in our care for what remains. This one will stay with me a long time.”
— Sarah Viren response to "The Orange Tree," runner up for the Literary Nonfiction award for 2024.
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"Friday Night” develops a rich portrait of Papa, a dynamo that leads the narrator and her siblings on weekend adventures in the world of rural Florida, among the playlands and pizza shops in “The Island” where the rich people lived and his house in the countryside built from stacked railcars that “beams like a castle between the hanging moss.” The genius of this essay is its collective point of view—the “we” that welcomes the reader in —and invites us to share more than just nostalgia: “We grew up teetering back and forth on the line of poverty,” the narrator reflects, but with Papa,“We were sheltered from the real-life possibilities of our downfall.” And we, the readers, are gifted a glimpse into regional identity that is both personal and shared, which is what the best nonfiction can do.
— Stephen J West response to "Friday Night," runner up for the Literary Nonfiction award for 2023.