Tag: Contest

Announcing the Winners of Iron Pen 2026!

Posted on by Ryan Collins

Thanks so much to everyone who participated in Iron Pen 2026. We received many terrific entries, and our excellent judges— Kate Wiegele (nonfiction), Dan Woessner (fiction), and Kristen Sneed (poetry), who are last year’s winners in each category—had very difficult decisions to make in their evaluations. We appreciate everyone’s time and talents in making this year’s contest one of the most competitive we’ve ever had.

Without any further ado, here are the winners of the 2026 Iron Pen Contest, by category…

Quick on the Write: Last Call for Iron Pen Registrations! Contest starts on Friday 2/23

Posted on by Ryan Collins

The fastest writing contest in the Midwest is back and taking registrations now!

The Midwest Writing Center is taking registrations for its 16th annual Iron Pen Contest. MWC will supply a prompt to all contestants at 5 p.m. on Friday, February 23 and contestants have 24 hours (entries are due Saturday, February 24 by 5 p.m.) to write and submit their best fiction, non-fiction, and/or poetry pieces. Writers are welcome to enter into as many categories as they like with a paid registration for each entry.

Iron Pen 2023: Rules, Info, Prompt Announcement

Posted on by Ryan Collins

Thank you all very much for participating in the fastest writing contest in the Midwest! We appreciate your writing courage & quick imagination, and we look forward to seeing all of your terrific submissions.

Before we get to the prompt (which will also be available via phone on the MWC’s outgoing voice message at 309-732-7330, via the home page and the Iron Pen page on the MWC website, and on our Facebook page), a few guidelines and other important bits of information: