Saturday Newsletter: November 11, 2023

A note from Emma Wood

Dear readers,

It is that time of year again: when more leaves fall from the trees with each gust of wind or heavy rain, and when we announce the winners of our annual book contest.

The 2023 winner is His Tower of the Night: A Nathalia Kitzmiller Mystery by Siri Nelson, 12, of Illinois. His Tower of the Night is a murder mystery set in the fictional Maine town of Little Rose; its heroine is the spunky Nathalia Kitzmiller, who, as one of eight kids, seizes every opportunity she gets to sneak away from the chaos and responsibilities of family life. Nelson’s novel manages to be simultaneously suspenseful and playful, realistic and also fantastical, silly and sweet. We can’t wait to share it with you soon!

While I am excited to announce our winner, I always do so with a heavy heart, as I know a win for one means a loss for many others. Writing a book is a difficult task, and putting it out into the world can be even harder. We thank all of you who wrote this year and who dared to submit. Please know that we read your work carefully and that we are sorry we don’t have better news to share. Below, you can find our full list of finalists.

And, as a reminder, if you have not yet purchased our 2022 winner, the truly visionary poetry collection, An Archeology of the Future, by Emma Catherine Hoff—please consider doing so today! The authors and everyone at Stone Soup put so much time, effort, and love into each book, and we want nothing more than to share the work with all of you readers—young and young-at-heart alike.

Yours from Cincinnati which recently turned to winter overnight—

Buy An Archeology of the Future

2023 Stone Soup Book Contest
Winner (Fiction)

His Tower of the Night: A Nathalia Kitzmiller Mystery

Siri Nelson, 12

We did not select a poetry winner this year.

Finalists

Fiction

Secrets and Blueberry Pie by Oola Breen-Ryan, 12

Waterfall Rocks by Anika Burst, 11

The Exchange by Yutia Li, 14

Cherry Knots by Chloe Ruan, 14

The Groundworld Heroes by Adrian So, 13

Traten by Alexandra Steyn, 14

Kingdoms of Glass by Isabella Washer, 14

Glimpse of Another World—a Collection of Short Stories by Samantha Wu, 14

Poetry

Poet in 5 by Madeline Cleveland, 13

Tree Alone by Amity Doyle, 13

rainbow dreams by Xi Huang, 10

Little Bay Soup by Marilena Korahais, 13 and Petros Korahais, 10