Gallup ninth grader wins first place in statewide fiction contest

A Gallup ninth grader turned a short story called “The Truth” into a statewide win, placing first in the fiction category of K12’s 2025 Writing Competition and putting McKinley County on the map in a contest with national reach.

Destinations Career Academy of New Mexico announced the winners on April 3, and Kelsie Annichiarico was among the students recognized for the first-ever competition. First-place winners received $250, and winning pieces will appear in The K12 Writers Collection, giving the Gallup student’s work a wider audience beyond her own school community.

The competition drew more than 2,000 student submissions from K12-powered students across the country in poetry, fiction and nonfiction. Nearly 26,000 public votes were cast across the entries before the contest closed Jan. 20, 2026, adding another layer of scale to a program that asked students to compete both with judges and with public attention.

Kelsie, who attends Destinations Career Academy of New Mexico, said she has long enjoyed writing short stories and that the win motivated her to keep writing. Her mother, Cora Annichiarico, said the contest highlighted Kelsie’s creativity and passion for writing. For a Gallup family, the recognition was more than a trophy, it was evidence that a young writer from McKinley County could stand out in a field that stretched well beyond New Mexico.

Daniel Diamond, executive director of Destinations Career Academy of New Mexico, said the students’ imagination, heart and powerful voices stood out in the review process, and said Kelsie and Grant Inetianbor represented the school well. The school describes itself as a tuition-free online public school serving grades K-12 across New Mexico, authorized by Santa Rosa Consolidated Schools and Chama Valley Independent School District.

For Gallup, the win adds a local success story to a statewide education landscape that often draws attention only when there is trouble. This time, the spotlight fell on a ninth grader, a fiction title and a family in McKinley County whose student writer earned first place on a much bigger stage.