(Madison)—Seekardia is very pleased to announce five recipients of the $150 awards for the 2012 What’s Religion Got To Do With It writing contest. Seekardia will publish the poems and essays with five additional fine pieces in the next several weeks. Proud Theater will use selected poems and essays or portions of selected submitted pieces for a fall production.  

This project has been made possible by the generous funding of the New Harvest Foundation and Rainbow Over Wisconsin. Seekardia received impressive submissions from areas covered by both foundations and beyond.  

Proud Theater’s artistic director, Brian Wild, Callen Harty, Sol Thea Kelley-Jones, and Sue Slotten, and Seekardia’s director, Cindy Crane, chose the following as top submissions:

Poetry 19-24 Age Group
Let Me Tell You by Molly E. Harvey, Madison, Wisconsin
Molly attends the University of Wisconsin Stout and is studying Human Development and Family Studies. Eventually she hopes to either become a middle school guidance counselor or a pastor. She is very involved in the UW Stout Gender and Sexuality Alliance and in the Lutheran Campus Ministry. She has always loved writing, especially poetry and short stories.

Passover Fruit by Sarah Fonseca, Savannah, Georgia
Sarah is a blue collar essayist living in Georgia. Much of her work deals with queers, Latinas, and the South, usually in large, intersectional doses. Her writing has been published on Autostraddle, in The Q Review, and Diverse Voices Quarterly. She is a 2012 Lambda Literary fellow.

Essays 19-24 Age Group
The Way She Was Meant To Be by Stephanie Fletcher, La Crosse, WI
Stephanie grew up in Wisconsin Rapids with her parents, two siblings, and five (yes, five) dogs. She is currently a student at UW La Crosse, majoring in Women’s Studies and hoping to minor in Creative Writing.  This is her first of what she wishes to be many publications.

Vinegar Kisses by Nicholle Johnson, Wisconsin
Nicholle has lived beneath library bookshelves since childhood. This inevitably led to a love of writing, full of napkin poetry and stints of empty paper. Nicholle currently attends the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, but when free from schoolwork, she rides bikes or watches the sun drop behind her city's bluffs.

14-18 Age Group
Walking the Red Road (essay) by Jennifer O’Malley, De Pere, Wisconsin 
As a Transgender individual and as a survivor of abuse, depression and addictions, Jennifer has seen first-hand in her own life as well as in the life of those she has known, the struggles that many youth face. She is enrolled in college and hopes to become an advocate for youth who are at risk, face discrimination, or who struggle with gender identity or sexual orientation. “I'd like to thank my grandmother, Karina O'Malley, who taught me that there is good in everyone, and that one person can make a difference."

Other honorable mentions include White Flag (poem) by Beth C., Missouri; Ye Shall Know the Truth (essay) by Kat Daniels, Madison, Wisconsin; You (poem) by Rhiannon Urbanowski, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Strange Fruit by Sarah Fonseca, Savannah, Georgia; One Man’s Treasure (essay) by Jacob Aaron, Vancouver, BC, Canada.

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