The MFA Glenn Balch Prize for Fiction

Each year, the Glenn Balch Prize in Fiction recognizes three MFA students for outstanding work in the short story or novel-excerpt form. The family of Glenn Balch, the famed Idaho writer who published over 30 books, funds the annual contest. There is no cost to enter the contest, which is open to all current MFA students. Members of the Balch family select the three finalists, who are then ranked by an outside judge. Award amounts vary each year.

Past Winners of the Glenn Balch Prize

2024 Winners – Judged by Corinna Vallianatos

First Place – “The Last Living Grandmaster” by Kira Compton
Second Place – “Abba Father” by Ayotola Tehingbola
Third Place – “Nikkei” by Cassie Woodard

Of the winning story, “The Last Living Grandmaster,” Corinna Vallianatos wrote, “‘The Last Living Grandmaster,’” timely and witty and crisply detailed, is interested in something murkier than is immediately apparent: human achievement and ego and regret and how inexorably change comes even for those who hide from it. It’s about an aging grandmaster locked in battle with AI, or a thing, as he thinks of it, that he’s been treating “too much like a human, or maybe not enough.” As his third match draws near, he thinks about the choices he’s made during his time on this “muddy earth,” about the victories and defeats of his marriage to his formidable, generous wife. I loved this story.”

2023 Winners – Judged by Gothataone Moeng

First Place – “Old Texas Wives Tale” by Kira Compton
Second Place – “See You Soon” by Ayotola Tehingbola
Third Place – “Soft Light” by Hannah Phillips

2022 Winners – Judged by Elizabeth Gonzalez James

First place: “Cutter” by Zach Small
Second place: “Winter Break” by Hannah Phillips
Third place: “The Water is Not the Faucet” by Ayotola Tehingbola

2021 Winners – Judged by Clyde Moneyhun

First place: “Traces” by Natanya Biskar
Second place: “Where it Comes From” by Desmond Fuller
Third place: “Frank” by Kathleen Olp

2020 Winners – Judged by Hester Kaplan

First place: “Any Good Scientist” by Jacqui ReikoTeruya
Second place: “Thug” by Edvin Subasic
Third place: “Heirlooms” by Rory Mehlman

2019 Winners – Judged by Kali Fajardo-Anstine

First place: “Ghost Story” by Becca Anderson
Other finalists: Jacqui Reiko Teruya and EJ Pettinger

2018 Winners – Judged by Ridley Pearson

First place: Stephen Miller
Other finalists: Mark Wood and Natalie Disney

2017 Winners – Judged by Wiley Cash

First place: “Current” by Ariel Delgado Dixon
Other finalists: Natalie Disney and Timothy Griffith