Formidable Women (2025)

Formidable Women: A Women’s History Month Essay & Poetry Contest

To celebrate our 99th anniversary and kick off our 100th anniversary celebration, we wanted to honor the founding women of the Phoenix Writers Club and Women’s History Month with a writing contest focused on formidable women.   As the contest guidelines stated, the competition was open to any Arizona residents, and the  theme was pretty open — “formidable women.” 

We received so many wonderful essays and poems. Here are the winners:

Essays

First Place:

Writing my Life
Deborah Partington

Second Place:

Survivor
Penny Orloff

Third Place:

Honorable Mention:

LIttle Italy
Jane Koepplinger

Honorable Mention:

Born Thrice
Felicia Penza

Poems

First Place:

Feminine Unfettered
Collen Picard

Second Place:

The Formidable Woman
Robin Krevitsky Ferguson

Third Place:

26/26 prelude
artiste-te

Honorable Mention:

I Am This Woman
Dot Sagnis

Honorable Mention:

Wednesdays with Cora
Linda Davis Watters