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FanFiction and FanArt Contests 2026!

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After an incredibly talented bunch of submissions to our Fanfiction and Fanart contests, we’ve finally decided on our winners. All of the work submitted was so awesome to see, and we enjoyed discussing your works immensely.

FanFiction First Place

Witch, by enoeugor!

Based on the work Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order + Survivor. The author says of their inspiration: “Ever wonder what happened between Jedi Fallen Order + Survivor? Three years after the events of Battle Scars and the splitting of the Mantis crew, Nightsister Merrin has wandered and seen the galaxy with her own eyes in her own healing journey since the traumatic events of the Massacre of Dathomir. Following her return to Dathomir, Merrin arrives at the busy planet of Kavros prepared for the galaxy’s new fates and the Empire’s ever-growing expansion. Dathomiri protagonists in Star Wars are awesome. I wanted to write more Merrin adventures, since the games follow Cal as the protagonist, and more Empire mentioning details because I would definitely take AP SW lore. I drew a lot of inspirations from SW novels! I’m pretty far from done and still really want to add Inquisitors, but the action scene took too long. I apologize for any alien terms and shenanigans. Enjoy!”

With an immersive beginning, this work truly pulls you in. The environment is so well done and the wording was well put. Our judges were raring to read the next chapter.

FanFiction Second Place

Every Brilliant Thing, by t3liloq!

Based on The Game Changers Series (namely Heated Rivalry and The Long Game). Of their inspiration, the author states, “Rachel Reid’s Game Changers series portrays stories of LGBTQ+ relationships and characters with refreshingly optimistic endings, centered around players from a fictionalized version of the National Hockey League. This fanfic in particular focuses on the characters from the second and sixth books (the same ones that recently blew up the internet after the release of the Crave show Heated Rivalry!), rival players in a years-long clandestine relationship coming to terms with their sexualities and feelings for each other.”

This fanfic was truly moving, and our judges admired how genuinely well written and immersive it was. The vignettes and the pacing were well done, and the concept was genuinely well presented.

FanFiction Third Place

Item #: SCP-1567-KO, by felon_aquaman!

Based on SCP Foundation and Welcome To Night Vale, the author explains that, “The SCP Foundation is a collection of online stories about entities or anomalies that are usually in a government file-type format. Welcome to Night Vale is a surrealist/horror fiction podcast about a strange town called Night Vale in the American Southwest.”

Our judges really admired the formatting, and the wonderful crossover between SCP and Welcome to Night Vale. It was a well thought out and original work.

FanArt First Place

Gachiakuta by Madeline P.

We thought that this work was wonderfully composed, with emotion so vividly depicted through the figures in the artwork. The use of color was impactful and well placed, and one of our judges likened it to a color page drawn by a professional mangaka.

FanArt Second Place

maki zenin my goat, by wonkler

The Fandom is “Jujutsu Kaisen,” which, as explained by the artist is about “a kid named yuji itadori eats a thousand year old finger and gets superpowers. also there is a very cool guy called gojo
maki zenin is a girl from the zenin clan. the zenin clan are big meanies and hate women. but maki is built different.”

Dynamic, beautiful, and visually striking, this work hails from Jujutsu Kaisen. The smears and the perspective brought this piece to a new level, and we really enjoyed the vivid colors.

FanArt Third Place

Synastry, by artimorans – fandom: Hannibal (TV)

A wonderfully abstract piece, the shading and the likening reminding one of our judges of The Fallen Angel by Alexandre Cabanel. The rendering was wonderfully done, and we loved it.

Thank you again to all the writers and artists who entered!

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The Stranger By Albert Camus (Review By Aiden L. ’29)

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The StrangerThe Stranger by Albert Camus
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

At first glance, the Stranger by Albery Camus can seem confusing and even disturbing. The story follows a character named Mersault, and his attitude on just about everything seems illogical to both us and his fellow Algerians. He lacks emotion, rejects religion, and is indifferent to social norms, making him the least approachable character in the novel. However, he’s also the character the reader is expected to approach. This juxtaposition turns the relatively simple premise set in ALgiers to a complicated journey where the reader must struggle to piece together Camus’ intent. To readers unfamiliar with the themes in his works, the Stranger is a great introduction that left me wondering if my life was any less absurd than Mersault’s. Although the novel is unintuitive and seems to touch on completely irrelevant and unimportant points, the conclusion will leave most readers satisfied. Although I would not recommend this book to everyone, it is certainly a perfect fit for people seeking to address the ‘absurd’ that they encounter every day.

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NICKEL AND DIMED BY BARBARA EHRENREICH (REVIEW BY AIDEN L. ’29)

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Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in AmericaNickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Some people never leave their hometowns, but Barbara Ehrenreich deliberately turns her life upside down. While most people imagine a vacation as a trip to an exotic or relaxing destination, Ehrenreich chooses the kind of “vacation” no one would want. For several months, she abandons her previous life and instead waits tables in Florida, cleans houses in Maine, and works retail in Minnesota.
In her book, Ehrenreich sets out to explore the realities of poverty in America firsthand. She leaves behind her husband, her possessions, and her stability, arriving in unfamiliar cities with little more than a laptop, some cash, and three goals: to find a job, settle into a home, and make friends in a completely new city, all in an attempt to understand what daily survival looks like for millions of Americans. Throughout her journey, Ehrenreich records the stories of dozens and presents their struggles through an alternative perspective on American economic inequality.
However, her undercover reporting ultimately feels limited in scope. While she mentions the struggles and traumatic stories of those she meets along the way—such as a teenage girl working for a cleaning company who survives on a single bag of chips each day—Ehrenreich rarely pursues these stories further. In documenting these conditions, she overlooks broader patterns and the systemic causes of these issues, glossing over experiences like those of trafficked dishwashers or middle-aged women working long hours at Wal-Mart.
Overall, I felt that she provided only a brief glance at poverty in the United States. At times, the novel felt as though it justified workplace abuse that stripped her coworkers of their dignity and pride. Regardless, her insights allow readers to take away one central message: for those living in poverty in America, work is more than just a means of survival; instead, it becomes a process of slowly selling away their lives just to survive.

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Impossible Escape by Steve Sheinkin (Review By Shamik K. ’27)

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Impossible Escape: A True Story of Survival and Heroism in Nazi EuropeImpossible Escape: A True Story of Survival and Heroism in Nazi Europe by Steve Sheinkin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rudolf Vrba, a Slovak Jewish teenager, becomes one of the first people to escape Auschwitz and reveal the atrocities – mass genocides and inhumane conditions – of the Holocaust to the world. With vivid detail and engaging writing, Sheinkin traces Rudolf’s transformation from a clever, rebellious youth into a relentless survivor. Along with his friend Alfred Wetzler, he risks everything in order to tell the world the truth about the continuous extermination of Jews in Nazi prison camps. The book plunges readers into the suffocating brutality of the Nazi regime, describing the daily horrors of Auschwitz, everything from the overcrowded barracks to forced dangerous labor to arbitrary executions. Alongside Rudolf’s tale runs the story of his schoolmate Gerta Sidonová, who had fled to Hungary with her family and was aiding with resistance against the Nazis.

I found Rudolf’s and Alfred’s escape fascinating, especially their ingenuity and courage while hiding for nearly four days inside a stack of wood, doused with tobacco and gasoline to ward off the SS’s dogs. Overall, one of the themes that really resonated with me was how heavy the cost is of bringing dark truths to light. -Review by Shamik K. ’27

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Pushing ice by Alastair Reynolds (review by Shamik K. ’27)

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Pushing IcePushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The year is 2057. Humankind has occupied the solar system. The Rockhopper, a comet-mining spaceship staffed by the captain Bella Lind and her crew of engineers, medics, and explorers, is called upon for an important mission. One of Saturn’s moons, Janus, has mysteriously begun to travel out of the solar system at an accelerating speed; it seems to be a dormant piece of alien technology. Their mission is to catch up to Janus and learn its secrets, secrets which could bring humans immensely useful technology or even first contact with an alien species.

I personally loved this book for its very unique, creative ideas; plausibility (making it a part of the awesome hard sci-fi category); and pure thrill. While Reynolds has outlandish ideas, he approaches them with hard facts and plausible science, not taking magical shortcuts until some of the inexplicably complicated alien technology the crew encounters. The narrative follows a sense of practicality in the way the crew approach the situation they are thrown into. Moreover, much of the plot involves interpersonal conflicts that are quite developed over the course of the characters’ unusual mission. Perhaps I tend to focus on the sci-fi, adventuring aspects of the novel, but I feel like Reynolds bungles the character dramas a bit; for example, the conflicts between Captain Lind and one of her subordinates seemed a bit overdone. -Review by Shamik ‘K. ’27

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Yellowface By R. F. Kuang (Review By Lana T. ’27)

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YellowfaceYellowface by R.F. Kuang
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

At first glance, Yellowface by R.F. Kuang is a book that prides itself on its timely realism. Chock-full of references to Twitter, Youtube, Goodreads, among other popular websites, Kuang takes a risk by placing her book in a very specific era that modern audiences are all too familiar with. The biggest risk in potential with this is that it can age your book significantly, and even worse with the inclusion of modern references, it can result in a book that appears to be trying far too hard to be relevant. Even though Yellowface came out in 2023, a mere two years ago, I personally found that the language and references didn’t add to the reading experience. Perhaps it was my lack of experience in reading books so explicitly modern, but constant references to the “Twitterati” and being cancelled were more tiresome than humorous. To be fair to Kuang, it is very clear that Yellowface was designed to be a popular, biting satire. I was unsurprised to learn that it boomed in popularity due to BookTok because the satire is engaging and easy to get involved with, resulting in a book with mass appeal. Yellowface follows June Hayward, who adopts the alias Juniper Song in order to publish and take credit for the unpublished manuscript of her deceased acquaintance, Athena Liu. Yellowface also puts us in the first-person perspective of June, whose narration is at times nuanced and interesting, and at times so blatantly racist that I question if satire is a little generous. Portraying a protagonist who consistently subjects others to microaggressions is an interesting choice, but it doesn’t make it easier as a reader to stay in the perspective of someone who says she “tries not to gag” in the presence of Chinese food.
Yellowface has a lot of redeeming qualities, with a wonderful premise that serves as an engaging source of conflict throughout. June gives a lot of commentary about authenticity and privilege within the industry, constantly defending her theft by saying that Athena would steal from other people for her novels as well. These moments, where Kuang dives into the nuance of the situation and portrays her protagonist in a human light are the best ones. They give an opportunity to look beneath the theft and see the person underneath. Unfortunately, the execution fumbles as the book continues, eventually concluding with an ending that can only be described as a trip over the finish line. Kuang spends time building up a conclusion that would provide a satisfying ending, making June face justice while also giving her closure for her actions, only to completely abandon it and pivot into an ending that feels shockingly fantastical for a relatively grounded story. The needless introduction of a cartoonish villain completely grinds the book’s pace to a halt, and when that happens with one chapter to go, there’s very few paths to recovery from there. The ending is the part that has stuck with me the longest after reading, but unfortunately because of how completely unnecessary and jarring of a turn it was. I found myself wishing that we could have seen the path Kuang spent multiple chapters building to instead, which would have been much more fulfilling and clean. Overall, Yellowface is a very interesting book. It opens the door to topics like authenticity, diversity, and the publishing industry, but fails to go any further than a surface level peek. As a satire, it does the bare minimum, but is at times mind-numbingly obvious. While it doesn’t have my recommendation, I can’t say I don’t think it was worth reading, because the chaotic end and few moments of nuance were enough to make me think it had something to say, even though those things might not have been the best executed.

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The Chosen and the Beautiful By Nghi Vo (Review By Tara N. ’26)

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The Chosen and the BeautifulThe Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Chosen and the Beautiful is a retelling of The Great Gatsby from Jordan’s perspective with some fantasy elements. I loved this book! It’s explicitly in conversation with the themes and motifs of the original, rather than being its own story or trying to be quirky and twist things up— it takes Fitzgerald’s throwaway references to the dynamics of race, class and sexuality and makes those undertones explicit. The prose is gorgeous and well-paced. I often found myself rereading sentences and paragraphs just to bask in the beauty of Vo’s language. I finished this in two days, even though I knew how the story ended, or perhaps because I did. It was very refreshing to have a light read after several months in the APUSH textbook trenches.

The magic system is based off of cultural superstition/myths—I would’ve liked to see Black and Native American tradition dealt with beyond a few offhand references, especially considering how Vo relates them to Gatsby, but I also get that the author may not have felt that it was her story to tell. Regardless, the omission is a bit awkward in a story meant to fill these sorts of omissions in the original. Fitzgerald already does an excellent job of writing Daisy, but seeing her flaws through the lens of a close friend makes the banality of her cruelty feel more real. I really DO know people like that—people who can be carelessly kind and good without changing their fundamental nature, who are self-centered without being genuinely evil.

The Chosen and the Beautiful doesn’t really stand on its own; to me, that’s more of a feature than a bug, but I understand the complaint. Vo is adapting and staying faithful to a plot centered around Jay Gatsby in a book that is not about Jay Gatsby—Jordan doesn’t always meaningfully engage with the central events of the book, which can get a little awkward. Vo does a good job of filling in the gaps with Jordan’s own introspection and Jordan’s own character arc, but the story of Jordan Baker and the story of Jay Gatsby sometimes tug against each other. My biggest qualm is the ending—it doesn’t really measure up to the sense of catharsis and full-circle completion of the original. It’s not satisfying in the same way. And the magic system has some utterly insane implications that aren’t really dealt with, but perhaps the forthcoming companion/sequel will fill those gaps.

I heavily recommend reading this book during or after you read Gatsby in English 3. It will make the original feel fresh and interesting if you’re getting bored of the same characters and themes, and you’ll enjoy the essay-writing and discussion process more in class, which will probably result in (gasp!) a better English grade. 3.5 stars, rounded up.

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Hell Bent By Leigh Bardugo (Review By Tara N. ’26)

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Hell Bent (Alex Stern, #2)Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Spoiler warning: no major spoilers, but a lot of minor ones. This also won’t make any sense unless you’ve actually read the book.

I reread this book two years after it dropped in hopes that I had hallucinated it having been bad (I only remembered one plot point. I’ll give you a hint: it was glowing.) I was sorely disappointed.

Many elements of the book were a let-down, and it’ll be difficult for me to articulate why. I think the most pressing issue is that Hell Bent tries to pack too much plot into too short of a book and leaves character development by the wayside.

The central mystery of Ninth House is not who killed Tara Hutchins; it’s who Alex Stern is, and by extension who Darlington is, who Hellie and Len are, where did they go, why do we care. These are the questions the reader is trying to answer as they work their way through the book.

But Hell Bent just focuses on its moving parts—Eitan, Anselm, Reiter, Michelle, Walsh-Whitley, Darlington himself. In a Goodreads Q&A, Leigh Bardugo mentioned that the Alex Stern series was originally going to be, like, 12 books, then got shortened to 5, then 3, because they took so long to research… and unfortunately, that’s very apparent. Hell Bent felt like it was the premise of several different books frankensteined together.

Several books’ worth of character development gets awkwardly skipped over. Mercy, Tripp and Turner get awkwardly shoehorned into the main cast, with their character arcs hastily jammed in in the form of supercuts and flashbacks. I say this not because I think they shouldn’t be, but because I think they should’ve been given more screentime and development—each of them deserved their own book in the spotlight.

Tripp was particularly jarring; in the original book, he’s a hapless symbol of white privilege and the infinite second chances given to wealthy young boys. There’s hints of where Bardugo wants to go with his character—the minor reveal that he was instinctively aware of what Blake Keely was came all the way back in book 1—but the transition from set dressing to guy we are supposed to care about just isn’t actually executed. Mercy’s being brought into the fold is also clumsily done. She’s one of my favorite characters, but I think the revelations she has in Hell Bent can’t be contained within the span of a few conversations.

People complained about the pacing of Ninth House, but Ninth House was good because you watched things unravel slowly; Hell Bent sacrifices all of that and thus has the opposite problem (although it wasn’t a problem in the first place). Too much plot is crammed in. Nobody stops to take a breather and emotionally process what’s going on. Ninth House was self-aware in a way that Hell Bent is not.

And I really, truly hate to say this—because this series is not about Darlington, he is not the hero of this story, and that is part of the point. I’ve seen people act like the white man was the best part of the series and it drives me utterly insane—but he really should’ve had more screentime. I would’ve wanted to see his POV earlier. Hell Bent is, ostensibly, about rescuing him. The fun of Ninth House was piecing the story together from the split POVs; perhaps Hell Bent could’ve pulled a similar trick with Alex’s thoughts from above, and Darlington’s thoughts from below. I support him going off the rails, but I want to see that process occurring bit by bit, not just a jump-cut to him suddenly being naked and feral with claws and horns. Darlington’s entire premise is that he’s a gentleman—if he’s not acting the part, we need more than a few sentences on why.

The story read like one of my English essays: a haphazardly jammed-together collection of plot notes, impossible to treat with their proper gravitas. Any legitimately compelling moment fell flat, because there was no real buildup, just payoff, payoff, payoff, except for the payoff didn’t feel like payoff because there was no buildup to make it a payoff, and we didn’t even get the biggest payoff of the series that everybody was hoping for (IYKYK). Alas.

I don’t care if book 3 takes another four years (I actually do, but that’s beside the point)—just please let it make up for this.

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FanART contest 2025! (written by tara n. ’26)

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first place

Little Birds by Anonymous (Fandom: Harry Potter)

Much like the Fanfiction Contest, we were thoroughly surprised by both the quantity and quality of submissions this year. At risk of sounding like a college rejection letter, the decision process was, indeed, very difficult—but ultimately, the thing that distinguished this piece above all others was that not only did it accurately and affectionately depict its source material, it invited deeper thought about it. The balanced composition is both visually appealing and meaningful to the source material, and the use of symbolism—the ouroboros, the golden birds, the living and dead snakes, and the various infinity symbols subtly woven into the work—universally impressed judges. It’s clear that the artist put a lot of love into this piece (and its source material). 

Second place

Fracture Point by Abigail L. ‘28 (Fandom: Arcane)

This piece was immediately singled out during judging as a standout, and everyone agreed near-instantly that this work deserved an award. The composition of the piece is dynamic and fluid, cleverly incorporating the details of the characters’ designs. The painting style replicates the iconic look of the original show, but is still distinctive as the artist’s own style—we especially loved the rendering of the metal shoulder plate and glove, and the blue fire. The artist successfully and subtly captured the complex emotions of the two characters in their facial expressions, their body language, and even the direction of their gaze.

Third place

Untitled by Rumi (Fandom: Batman)

This was the first piece we saw upon opening up our submissions, and it left a lasting impression. The artist’s mastery of form, lighting and color is apparent—we especially loved the sharp, Leyendecker-esque rendering of the masked Batman portrait, and the detailed, evocative lighting of the top-left portrait. One anonymous judge praised the piece’s “excellent knowledge of anatomy.” The deep, moody color palette accurately reflects the tone of the source material. The artist’s deep love for Batman is apparent. We could not, in good conscience, not give this piece an award.

Honorable mentions

In addition to our top three pieces, we also wanted to shout-out several honorable mentions that impressed our judges:

“One for sorrow two for joy” by bread herring (Fandom: Passing)

“Yuqi” by Cabbage (Fandom: G-idle)

“I am forever your most devoted believer” by zaoshanghao (Fandom: Heaven Official’s Blessing (Tian Guan Ci Fu)

We had such amazing submissions this year, it wouldn’t be fair to withhold all of them from you… Please enjoy them below:

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Dream of the Red Chamber By Cao Xueqin (Review By Jason S. ’25)

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Dream of the Red ChamberDream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

“The Dream of the Red Chamber is a peculiar novel to write a review for. I’ve been reading it on-and-off over the course of the last three months, and I’ve had to reread my favorite sections to really collect my thoughts. In reflecting, I’ve come to the conclusion that the novel is pretty worthwhile.

For the uninitiated, The Dream of the Red Chamber is an 18th-century Qing Chinese novel, among the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. In the frame narrative, a humble primordial stone begs a Buddhist monk and a Taoist priest to help him experience the pleasures of the mortal “red dust.” The stone is thus incarnated as the pampered heir Jia Baoyu, who cultivates a doomed love for his cousin Lin Daiyu in the pleasurable Daguanyuan garden and navigates the declining fortunes of four aristocratic families. Due to my limited knowledge of Chinese, I elected to read Chi-chen Wang’s translation using the Wade-Giles romanization (I will refer to the characters in pinyin). Although Wang ultimately abridged the 120-chapter novel into 40 chapters and removed much of the poetry and nuance introduced by Cao, I found his adaptation to be suitable for a first read-through where those details would have been inevitably glossed over anyways.

The story reads in an almost episodic fashion, with various courtly vignettes informing an overall metanarrative of societal decline. Due to this structure, most of the characters in this novel are static, and as the novel progressed, quickly made themselves unlikeable to me, either through their actions or ignorance. Baoyu, our protagonist, was a prime example. His petulance, passivity, lust, and hedonism deeply frustrated me as the troubles of his family became clearer. In fact, at times he literally sits and stares catatonic as events unfold around him. Don’t mistake this for a negative, though — his inability to take responsibility enhanced for me the message that all pleasure regresses into dust, and a certain turning point in the middle of the book made me feel really sorry for him. The only characters I could truly root for were the truly innocent who underwent horrible psychological and physical abuse at the hands of others, usually female servants victimized by either Baoyu’s ignorance or the Macchiavellian antiheroine Wang Xifeng.

My main criticism is with the pacing. Perhaps it is a consequence of Wang’s effort to compress 120 chapters into 40, but I found myself incredibly confused as to who was who. It took me a solid few minutes with a family tree online to truly understand the complex relationships between the four families. I’d sometimes start reading a chapter and give up halfway through because I didn’t know who any of the characters were, which really hurt the episodic nature of the text and made it harder to connect with the characters. It wasn’t a huge issue, though. In my opinion, all that means is that this text will take extra effort to digest.

I want to end this review by talking about the ending (in a spoiler-free way). The thing is, it completely contradicts everything that’s been established about the characters, and subverts the overarching narrative Cao was building up. Yet it contained some of the most beautiful literature I had the pleasure of reading in the book. Puzzled, I sleuthed online and learned quickly that the last 40 chapters of the original 120 had been written by an unknown author with completely different intentions from Cao. In other words, for the last third of the book, I too was a captive of the “red dust,” too blinded by the feel-good writing to question its authenticity. Yet I maintain that the ending is beautiful, and I think its dubious authorship enhances its value. Is Baoyu’s happy conclusion illusory by necessity? This is a question I hope to revisit upon future examinations of this text later in life. The truth is that we will never know, and accepting that fact is our first step to abjuring the red dust.”

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