After a wealth of short stories on topics ranging from terrorist attacks, to life on Mars were submitted and judged, the winners of Write on the River’s annual writing competition have been announced. Wenatchee High School junior Edan Patterson placed first, which came with a $100 prize. Senior Juan Martin received an honorable mention.

High schoolers submitted short fiction stories no longer than 1,000 words in length by March 31. The winners for the competition were announced May 16 at the opening of Write on the River’s 2015 Writers Conference, which was followed by workshops and meetings with authors and publishers. The workshops included topics such as poem writing and advice for future novelists. Write on the River also hosted an adult writer competition.

This was Patterson’s second time participating in Write on the River. He received an honorable mention last year.

“My short story was about a terrorist attack in which a group of terrorists attached a bomb to a dog’s collar and killed everyone inside. I didn’t have any inspiration, I just thought that it was super duper messed up so I’m going to write about it,” Patterson said.

Patterson has always had a passion for literature, and is currently working on a novel.

“I’ve always really liked reading, and I got interested in writing somewhere along the way. Right now I’m doing a directed study in novel writing. For Write on the River I just took the first chapter of what I was writing for my Directed Study and submitted that,” Patterson said.

Martin submitted a short story about a Mars colony titled “Before the Storm.” This was Martin’s first time participating in the competition.

“A lot of [my inspiration] had to do with the NASA and how they are starting up a Mars program, and they’re trying to get people to Mars,” Martin said.