2026 VFW Publication Contest Concludes in a Tight Race

The 2026 VFW Publications Contest has concluded, and this year saw another outstanding collection of published works from veterans across the country.

Similar to previous years, to help drive more engagement, the VFW 2026 Publication Contest featured Best Feature Story and Best Magazine categories. According to the judges, those categories saw many impressive entries this year.

The winners for Best Feature Story are:

• Grand: "Renewed Purpose: Veteran Finds Community in the VFW" by Macee Swafford, The Sentinel-Echo
• Silver: "Remembering Lt. John Marshall Runkle, Who Gave All for Country" by Zoltan Krompecher, The Plain Dealer
• Bronze: "HLWW Honors Those Who Have Served with Annual Veterans Day Program" by Austen Neaton, Herald Journal

One of the judges commented on the difficulty of choosing the grand winner, resulting in a tight race between the two articles.

"'Renewed Purpose' and 'Remembering Lt. John Marshall Runkle' were some of the best stories I've ever read," she said.

The winners for Best Magazine are:

• Grand: The California Veteran
• Silver: Texas VFW
• Bronze: Department of South Carolina Sentinel

The California Veteran and Texas VFW both unanimously won grand and silver, respectively.

The winners for Department Publications are:

(Small frequency, printed 1-4 times per year)

• Grand: Illinois VFW News
• Silver: New York State Overseas Veteran

(Large frequency, printed 5+ times per year)

• Grand: Wisconsin VFW News

The winners for District/Post publications are:

(Small frequency, printed 1-4 times per year)

• Grand: VFW Post 2016 News
• Silver: VFW Post 1318 News
• Bronze: VFW Post 4495 Quarterly

(Large frequency, printed 5+ times per year)

• Grand: VFW Post 1503 Newsletter
• Silver: VFW Post 2894 Newsletter

Although this year saw less submissions from previous years, the judges noted the higher quality of entries. Awards will be mailed to their respective Departments in the next few weeks. Departments will need to arrange presentation of the awards.

Congratulations to the winners and thank you to everyone who submitted outstanding published works that recall the tremendous efforts of veterans, help keep Post members engaged and up-to-date and help spread the word of veteran advocacy.

This article is featured in the 2026 May issue of Checkpoint. If you're a VFW member and don't currently receive the VFW Checkpoint, please contact VFW magazine at [email protected].