Harrison Writing Award
The Harrison Writing Awards include up to four $350 awards given annually in the categories of either expository or creative writing to HPS high school students by the Helena Education Foundation. Dr. Lee Harrison endowed these awards in memory of her mother Ethel Harrison. Professional writers in the community review submissions and select the winning pieces. The prose and poetry of Harrison award winners are featured in the annual Pen & Ink magazine. The Foundation organizes a community launch party for the magazine at which students have the opportunity to share their works. See below for previous Harrison Writing Award winners.
Pen & Ink magazinesHarrison Writing Award Winners
2026
Reese LaFond (CHS) wrote “Whose Flesh”
Eleanor Kakuk (CHS) wrote “What Should Have Been a 2 Hour Trip”
2025
Zaraj Carrucini (CHS) for “Library Guardian” and “Tiger in a Birch Tree Forest”
Fiona Kuntz (CHS) for “Ms. Shallot” and “The Woods”
Dane Moser (HHS) for “A Winter’s Thought”
2024
Nathaniel Fang for “Paper Flowers” and “Home”
Greydyn Gildroy for “Elaine” and “My Sunshine”
Fiona Kuntz for “Gardenry of Faireen” and “You Matter”
2023
Cecilia Kolar for “Engine and Annie”
Alli Christensen for “People Watching”
Robert Stimpson for “Love in a Live Oak”
Wyatt Gant for “Dancing in the Moonlight”
2022
Ella Shropshire for “Aino Beside the Boulder”
Rebecca Smillie for “The Chrysallis” and “The Iron Giant’
Elinor Goehring for “The Lovers’ Cinquain”
2021
Angelo Bender for The Pale White House With a Red-Brimmed Door
Rebecca Smillie for The House that Is Silent
Andrea Stalnaker for Thank God for Christmas Lights
2020
Rebecca Smillie for Yellow Canaries
Molly Brandt for No One But You and An Ode to the Eyes that See All and Say Nothing
Hannah Muszkiewicz for 13 Things to See in a Chickadee
2019
Jordan Bird for Excerpt From Dinosaur Nerd
Natalia Kelly for Uhhh.
Meagan Broussard for Manipulations With Pink
Kate Loble for It’s Moderate to Severe or My Life’s Story
2018
Caitlin Robinson for Little Moonlight Girl
Declan Rous for Change
Clara Macrae for Peaked
Hannah Dreesbach for At the End of the Road
2017
Abby Stiffler for Collection of Poems
Mariah Thomas for We Marched
Francie Tupper for The Truth Behind the Text
Arynn Cummings for Collection of Poems
2016
Michael Burns for Tod, The Night We Danced, The Auction
Mary Nickol for Just as Pretty
Shannon Roybal for 26 Sundays
Emily Dummer for Death by Coffee
2015
Kelsey Blackaby for Collection of Pieces
Kylie Campbell for “Silence” and “How Does it Feel?
Justin Dingman for My Great Glass Box
Rosie Costain for Adventuring into Actuality
Landen Beckner for Waterlogged Gospel
2014
Philomena Lloyd for Growing
Hayden Broesder for Hamlet’s Soliloquies
Julie Rockenbaugh for Robin
2013
Cory Briar for The North Road
Allison Vaughn for Distance
Julia Marie White for Pack Rat
Amanda Gibson for Sketchbooks and Stick Notes
2012
Kate McNamee for Perfect Imperfections
Madison Ellis for So Prayed Sophie and The Marine and the Good Egg
Thomas Harris for This is Not a Sad Poem
2011
Connor Murnion for Myriad and Take the Exit You Like
Kate McNamee for Big Bang
Jasmine Sewell for The Victor
2010
Creative Writing:
Liz Hartley for A collection of poems
Elena Hodges for A collection of poems
Expository Writing:
Kristen Ingman for Love Poem with Toast
Nicole Lorass for How Much is a Text Message Really Worth?
2009
Creative Writing:
Rachel Smith for A collection of poems
Maria Nelson for Echoes of Alexandria
Expository Writing:
Paige Esposito for Heart of Darkness
Texel Feder for Happiness
2008
Creative Writing:
Alexis Graman for David’s Hike
Brandi Swingley for Grief is Timeless
Expository Writing:
Erinleigh Caughron for A Struggle to Stay Alive: Preserving a Culture
Renee Elsen for Tradition
2007
Creative Writing:
Lindsay Johnson for A collection of poems
Antony Speranza for A Ray Through the Clouds
Expository Writing:
Dylan Dal Poggetto Kahn for Sands and Empire
Daniel Barta for The Haunts of Memory
2006
Creative Writing:
Darcy Poletti Harp for The Sun Falling
Hannah Gilbert for Jump on the Rhythm Train!
Expository Writing:
Brianne DeWitt for Public Funding for Music Education
Dylan Gallagher for Jimbo
2005
Creative Writing:
Annika Robins for Nowhere, WY
Kelsey Fanning for “Why Coyote Sings”
Expository Writing:
John Fine for Merchant of Venice
Geoffrey Stueven for I Love a Good Mess