SWS: Things You Can’t Say Out Loud Challenge Winners

Welcome back to the Summer Writing Series, and to a challenge that asked you to cross a line most of us avoid.

For Things You Can’t Say Out Loud, we invited you to give voice to the things that usually stay tucked away. The quiet fears, the buried truths, the words that sting a little too much to say aloud. From quiet reckonings and family tensions to grief, shame, and raw defiance, these poems didn’t hold back, and neither did you.

These are the ones that said what needed to be said.

🏆 Winners

i don't want to be a mother. by Imola Tóth

Imola Tóth's poem speaks honestly about something few people are willing to say out loud. We felt the weight behind every line, it’s a piece that says what’s often left unsaid, and doesn’t flinch while doing it.

Authenticity VS. AI by Luna Jordan

Luna Jordan's Authenticity VS. AI brings out the tension between truth and performance in a way that felt really personal. It reads like a dare to stay vulnerable, even when the world offers polished echoes instead.

Your Husband by Lacie Grayson

Lacie Grayson's poem speaks to something deeply painful, and does it without looking away. That line about shrinking smaller is still echoing; you said what most would bury, and it lingers.

Witch by Raistlin Allen

Raistlin Allen's piece stood out for how clearly it captured shame, anger, and eventually strength. There’s a quiet power in how the poem moves from hiding to saying things out loud.

a bitten tongue by Tyler C Clark (he/him)

Tyler C Clark's a bitten tongue carries the kind of tension you can feel in your body. It's raw, angry, and honest in a way that's hard to shake. That final line lands hard and sums up everything that came before it in a way we won’t forget.

🎖️ Runners-up

• I'm Still Counting the Days by Autumn S.
• The Wrong Version by Fatal Serendipity
• When I’m Gone, and You’re Still Here by Dagmar Goeschick
• I Hope You Die Before Me by Theo James Taylor
• Hasbara by River and Celia in Underland
• Revisionist History by M.N. Sterrett
• The Part I Don’t Write About by Angie Craig
• Burnt Napkins by Ellie Hoovs
• This is also by Morgana
• Dare I Say by Mikayla Rose
• I Am by J. Nicholas Merchen
• This House by Riley Forest
• Fragile Soft Bird of Prey by Michele Nampalli
• The Voice Beneath My Skin by Emmie Falbo
• Beneath My Tongue by Tim Carmichael

🏅 Honorable Mentions

• My Beloved, I Wish You Death by Lora Coleman
• We Were Too Little by A. J. Schoenfeld
• Brute Silence by kt
• Checking In by Bride of Sound
• I Blame You by Alicia Anspaugh
• I Don’t Say These Things by Marie381Uk
• e r o d e by Kristen Balyeat
• The Child I'll Never Meet by Bex Jordan
• That word by Mae
• Two Summers by Cali Loria

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