Nick Adams Short Story Contest

Since the Nick Adams Short Story Contest began in 1973, our students have won more first place and finalist awards than those from any of the other colleges in the contest -- the 14 members of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest.

Named after a protagonist in several of Ernest Hemingway's stories, the competition involves three phases:

• Students at each campus submit stories to their own faculty, who select a maximum of four entries.
• Entries from all the campuses are judged by a panel of ACM faculty, who select finalists.
• The finalists are then judged by a guest writer from outside the ACM, who selects first place winners and honorable mentions.

Judges have included Saul Bellow, Joyce Carol Oates, Maya Angelou, John Updike, Jane Smiley, Stuart Dybek and, in 2011, Binnie Kirshenbaum.

Below are charts of the cumulative totals for ACM member colleges and a year-by-year roster of our finalists and first prize winners. Read about the professional success of Nick Adams winners.

Knox undergraduate writers have received distinguished fellowships from top graduate writing programs, including the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop, Stanford University, New York University, Brown University, and Indiana University. Our alumni have been winners of the American Book Award and Pulitzer Prize, as well as editors of Simon & Schuster, Doubleday, and various American university presses.

Nick Adams Short Story Competition 1973-2015

Knox College: Nick Adams Finalists and First Prize Winners