CLiF's Two-Sentence Story Contest Winners

By Sarah Hall

CLiF's annual Two-Sentence Story Contest is one of our very favorite traditions. Free to enter, and open to all children 12 and under in Vermont and New Hampshire, it rewards fledging authors for both creativity and brevity. While each edition brings a new story prompt, the rules stay the same: Be original, and limit yourself to just two sentences.

This year, we challenged young writers to tell us a tall tale. Hundreds of kids from across Vermont and New Hampshire answered our call to stretch the truth, and the results were hilarious, heartfelt, thought-provoking, outlandish, and endlessly imaginative. 

Selecting the winners is always the hardest part. We honestly love reading each and every entry we receive, and it's no simple task to narrow the pool down to just a handful of winning submissions. We are very grateful to every single young writer who sent us their story. (And, of course, to every adult who helped with logistics!) 

Congratulations to this year's winners, whose triumphant tall tales are transcribed below (click here to see them in their original form): 

• Aaruhi P, age 5
• Xander C, age 7
• Austin A, age 8
• Atchinson H, age 9
• Max W, age 12
• Juliette A, age 12

Please save the date for next year's contest, which will be held in March 2027!

Note: This post has been updated from the original, which included AI illustrations. CLiF has since realized that choice was not in keeping with what we stand for as an organization.