Past Winners

In the wake of the murder of George Floyd last year, we launched our 'Justice For' essay contest. This was the second contest we had ever hosted. In continuing with our tradition of uplifting marginalized voices, we are making this an annual contest. As the trial of George Floyd's murderer is under way and with near daily acts of cowardice and racism by police, this pursuit is as essential as ever.  

We leave the requirements very loose as we don’t believe in limiting your experience. It can be a a personal encounter with racism, a response to hearing of more news stories, a feeling of not doing enough, or any other topic that you feel relates to living as a person of color under racist structures. 

The winner will receive $100 and will have the opportunity to choose a community bail fund, charity, or political action organization of their choice to also receive $100. 

If you have thoughts you would like to share on the current state of the police system, the riots, the community, or the death of innocent people at the hands of broken systems, we want to hear them.

 This contest is a response to the many hashtags that get created each time a person of color is killed by the police. While hashtags are great for spreading awareness and ensuring their names live on, we hope that this will allow space for a deeper dialogue. Tell us how you’ve been impacted or tell us how you haven’t been impacted. Tell us anything you feel might relate; a story, a thought, a memory. 

File must be uploaded in pdf, doc, docx, or txt format on or before May 16, 2021.

We will consider essays of any length, but we advise to keep it under 6,000 words. 

Must have as its primary focus a topic related to the experiences of people of color living under a structure of racism.

Please use the submission form to ensure that we receive your work and that it is properly sorted.

If you are unable or unwilling to pay the submission fee, you can email your work to editor@samfiftyfour.com but please be sure to check out the submission form to see what information we require (Bio, where the piece was written, etc.)