Thanks so much to everyone who accepted this ekphrastic challenge! We called for entries in response to our visual prompt, The Chains That Free Us, a photograph by Cindy L. Sheppard which she shot in 2017 as she hiked the Hidden Canyon Trail in Zion National Park, Utah (USA).

From half a dozen finalists, two Winners were selected: one by the photographer and one by MacQ’s publisher, Clare MacQueen. Each winner receives a small cash prize, and all of the finalists are published here in MacQ-7.

(For complete details about this writing challenge, see Guidelines.)

Winner ($75 USD), Photographer’s Choice:

⚡ Hidden Canyon Trail, Zion [poem] by C.L. Liedekev

Winner ($75 USD), Publisher’s Choice:

⚡ Lovers of a Bygone Era [flash fiction] by Guy Biederman

Four Finalists, unranked:

⚡ Trail Chains [poem] by Cynthia Anderson

⚡ [Untitled Cherita Sequence] [poem] by deb y felio

⚡ Trail Crew [prose poem] by Elizabeth Kerlikowske

⚡ The Thin, Terrifying Edges Between Things [poem] by
Jonathan Yungkans

Results from our previous writing competitions:

The MacQ “RESQ” Challenge (September 2020)

The MacQ “Quink” Challenge (July 2020)

Magician Ekphrastic Challenge (May 2020)

The DavenTree Ekphrastic Challenge (Spring 2019)

One Life, One Earth (OLOE) Challenge (Spring 2017)