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.

2023 Harrison Writing Award Winners

• 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 Harrison Writing Awards

• Ella Shropshire for “Aino Beside the Boulder”
• Rebecca Smillie for “The Chrysallis” and “The Iron Giant’
• Elinor Goehring for “The Lovers’ Cinquain”

2021 Harrison Writing Awards

• 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 Harrison Writing Awards

• 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 Harrison Writing Awards

• 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 Harrison Writing Awards

• Caitlin Robinson for Little Moonlight Girl
• Declan Rous for Change
• Clara Macrae for Peaked
• Hannah Dreesbach for At the End of the Road

2017 Harrison Writing Awards

• 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 Harrison Writing Awards

• 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 Harrison Writing Awards

• 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 Harrison Writing Awards

• Philomena Lloyd for Growing
• Hayden Broesder for Hamlet’s Soliloquies
• Julie Rockenbaugh forRobin

2013 Harrison Writing Awards

• Cory Briar for The North Road
• Allison Vaughn for Distance
• Julia Marie White for Pack Rat
• Amanda Gibson for Sketchbooks and Stick Notes

2012 Harrison Writing Awards

• 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 Harrison Writing Awards

• Connor Murnion for Myriad and Take the Exit You Like
• Kate McNamee for Big Bang
• Jasmine Sewell for The Victor

2010 Harrison Writing Awards

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 HEF Writing Awards

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 HEF Writing Awards

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 HEF Writing Awards

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 HEF Writing Awards

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 HEF Writing Awards

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