Contact: Tonya Whitaker, 202-315-0681, publicity@athanatos.org

WASHINGTON, Oct. 15, 2012 /Christian Newswire/ -- Athanatos Christian Ministries is pleased to announce the winners of their 2012 Christian short story and poetry contests. The fourth annual contest saw some winning entries that many Christians will find "push the envelope" but are nonetheless consistent with ACM's apologetics goals.

"If our stories only connect with believers, we fail as a Christian apologetics ministry," says Anthony Horvath, ACM's executive director.

Including this year's contests, ACM will have distributed nearly $15,000 in cash awards since it first began its literary apologetics ministries.

The stories and poems can be read online on the 2012 Christian Writing Contest award page.

The 2013 contest is presently accepting entries. ACM also offers a novel contest, a children\'s book contest, online writing courses, and a new Christian book review service.

Short Story Results:

ACM's C.S. Lewis Award (1st Prize) goes to David Sable of Deep Gap, North Carolina, for his story, "The God of Oscar's Misunderstanding."

The Confident Christianity GK Chesterton Award (2nd Prize) goes to Chuck Wasielewski of Apalachin, New York, for his story, "Escape from Wrath and Ruin."

ChristianManuscriptSubmission presents the George MacDonald Award (3rd Prize) to Skye Collender of Foristell, Missouri, for her story, "Many Sparrows."

The Bard and Book Flannery O'Connor Award (4th Prize) goes to Andrew Bogner of Hutchinson, Kansas, for his story, "Broken Piece of Night."

The Athanatos Online Apologetics Academy JRR Tolkien Award (5th Prize) goes to Aaron Branch of Tulsa, Oklahoma, for his story, "Somewhere in Between."

The Hieropraxis Dorothy Sayer's Award (6th Prize) goes to Gail Howitt of Glendale, Arizona, for her story, "The Narwhal."

ACM presents the Dante Award (7th prize) to k.i.m of Cambria, California, for the story, "entertaining."

Poetry Category Results:

The Hieropraxis Gerard Manley Hopkins Award (1st Prize) goes to Therese Eby of Irving, Texas, for her poem, "Herodias"

The Hieropraxis T.S. Eliot Award (2nd Prize) goes to Andrew Bogner of Hutchinson, Kansas, for his poem, "Like a grade school production of No Exit"

ACM's John Donne Award (3rd Prize) goes to Jared Olson of New Hope, Minnesota, for his poem, "The Butterfly and the Bee"

Runner-up award winners in the poetry contest are Hannah Harmon of Imperial, Nebraska, for her poem, "Face Behind Bars" (The Francis Thompson Award) and Holly Munn of Kalamazoo, Michigan, for her poem, "Lamentation" (The George Herbert Award).

Reach these authors for interview requests through ACM at publicity@athanatos.org.