Announcing Our 2024 Contest Judges
- Puerto del Sol
- Jul 11, 2024
- 2 min read
Updated: Nov 17, 2024
Since 2017, Puerto del Sol hosted an annual poetry & prose contest, with one winner in each category taking home a $1,000 cash prize. Along with the cash prize, contest winners also receive publication in the forthcoming Spring issue of Puerto del Sol. Winning pieces are selected with the help of renowned writers, serving as the final judges. Contest submissions are open from March 1st to September 1st each year.
Ready to meet this year's judges?!
For our 8th annual Puerto del Sol Poetry & Prose Contest, we are so very pleased to announce our judges:
Diana Khoi Nguyen and Ruben Degollado.
Poet, human, and multimedia artist, Diana Khoi Nguyen was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. She is the author of Ghost Of (2018), a finalist for the National Book Award, and Root Fractures (2024), her second poetry collection which was named as one of LitHub’s Poetry Books to Read in 2024. Her video work has recently been exhibited at the Miller Institute for Contemporary Art. Nguyen is a Kundiman fellow and member of the Vietnamese artist collective, She Who Has No Master(s). She has also received a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, is a winner of the 92Y Discovery Poetry Contest and recipient of the 2019 Kate Tufts Discovery Award. Nguyen currently teaches in the Randolph College Low-Residency MFA and is an Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh. For more information on Dian Khoi Nguyen and her beautiful work: https://dianakhoinguyen.com/
Rubén Degollado's work has recently appeared, or is forthcoming, in Lit Hub, Texas Highways, The Common, as well as within the anthologies Living Beyond Borders and Nepantla Familias. His YA novel, Throw (2019) was the winner of the Texas Institute of Letters 2020 award for Best Young Adult Book, and was included on the Texas Library Association 2020 TAYSHAS list of best books for teen readers. Rubén’s debut literary novel, The Family Izquierdo (2022) was long-listed for the PEN/Faulkner Award, was a Texas Institute of Letters Best Fiction Award finalist, a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice, and selected for Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2022. Rubén has been an educator since 1994, serving as a tutor, teacher, assistant principal, principal, and director of school improvement. rubendegollado.com/
Update
A special thanks to both of these judges for taking the time to carefully read and select our 2024 winners:
Matthew Woodman with "Park Fire Minor Arcana" (Poetry)
&
Morgan Christie with "163 Tings" (Prose)
Check out these two amazing pieces in our forthcoming Spring 2025 Issue of Puerto del Sol!
It’s exciting to see the judges for the 2024 contest announced! Having experienced judges can really inspire participants and elevate the quality of submissions. I’m always impressed by how visuals play a role in competitions like this clear, precise illustrations can make a huge difference in communicating ideas. For anyone looking to create standout entries, working with professional technical illustration services can help ensure diagrams and visuals are accurate, polished, and really bring the concepts to life.
It’s inspiring to see respected writers serving as judges for this contest and helping spotlight powerful new voices. Opportunities like this remind us how important literary communities are for bringing strong stories and future books into the world. For many emerging writers, moments like these can even lead to journeys in self book publishing, where their creative voice finally reaches readers.
Congratulations to all the 2024 contest judges! It’s inspiring to see such diverse voices helping to shape emerging writers work. Events like this remind me of how meaningful well‑told life stories can be, especially in genres like biography writing where personal experiences become powerful narratives. I’m excited to read the winning pieces and see how each author brings their unique story to life through the art of the book.
It’s impressive how Geometry Dash turns electronic music into a gameplay guide, helping players move by instinct rather than sight.