Chloe Scheve Wins Honorable Mention in Utah Original Writing Competition

English Department undergraduate student Chloe Scheve earned an honorable mention in the 2025 Utah Original Writing Competition—a prestigious award, with prior winners including four past Utah Poets Laureate—for her creative nonfiction essay “Children of the Birds.”

The piece was originally written in Professor Jennifer Sinor’s speculative nonfiction class in Spring 2025 and uses speculative elements to craft scenes with whom Chloe imagines to be her unborn children.

“The essay mirrors the loss of my father with the loss of Ara Tricolor, a Cuban macaw that went extinct in the late 19th century,” Chloe says. “When I imagined my unborn children/new generation existing in a world without my father or a rich environment, I could more fully express the repercussions of our current actions.”

For Chloe, working in a speculative space allowed her to explore her fears about the future in a way that informed her understanding of present grief. She explains, “It’s difficult to write about something or someone that is no longer there. Thus, the speculative opens up a new narrative mode to describe an absence. I enjoyed working in the speculative because I could lean on the unseen to explore the known.”

Chloe submitted to UOWC under the encouragement of Jennifer, noting the push from her mentors at USU is what allows her writing to be read as someone who sometimes struggles seeing the value of her work. After winning the honorable mention, Chloe noted feeling recognized as someone that can create good art.

“I am applying to MFA programs this fall and knowing that I belong in the community of writers here in Utah, I am more convinced I can carve out a space for myself wherever I go next,” she reflects.