Announcing the Winners of the 2025 J.F. Powers Prize for Fiction
From over five hundred stories submitted, our judges have chosen the following stories as winner, runner-up, and honorable mentions. These stories will be appearing in the pages of Dappled Things in the coming year.
2025 J.F. Powers Prize Winners
Winner: Paul J. Pastor, “Minus World”
Our judges were impressed by this story on many levels. A strange, thoughtful story written in beautiful page-turning prose that lingers long after it’s done.
Runner up: Olakunle Ologunro, “Miracle Worker”
“Miracle Worker” has at its center a finely crafted moral dilemma, framed by personal ambition and integrity, which the author handles with expert skill.
Honorable Mention: Mohammad Saleh Sahragard, “Middle East Cowboy”
Set firmly in a foreign country and culture, this story manages to reach across culture and strike at deep truths of struggle, pain, dreams, hope, and the universal human experience.
Once again, thank you to everyone who submitted to the contest this year. We are grateful to you for entrusting us with reading your submissions. Keep writing, sharing, submitting, and promoting Catholic arts and letters.
