Lantern Books is delighted to announce the winners of our 2005 Essay Contest.

In joint third place were Lisa Kemmerer from Montana for her essay "Broilers" and Philip Armstrong from New Zealand for "Sympathy." The runner up was Elena Conte from the Bronx for her "A Green Belt Movement of Its Own Flavor."

The winner was Kao Kalia Yang from Minnesota for her essay "To the Men in My Family Who Love Chickens," a strikingly evocative memory of her family and the horrors of the Vietnam War. You can read all four of these pieces in the coming days, as well as interviews with the winners.

We would like to congratulate all the winners, and extend our thanks and appreciation to all the entrants. We will be featuring many of the finalists' essays over the forthcoming months, and hope you enjoy reading them as much as we did.