Five Minnesota writers—four poets/spoken word artists, and one children's author -- have each won a $25,000 McKnight Artist Fellowship, it was announced today by the Loft Literary Center.

The winners were chosen from a field of 103 poetry applications and 22 children's literature applications

The poetry winners are Anders Carlson-Wee, David Mura, Khary Jackson and Kristin Naca. The children's literature winner is Constance Van Hoven of St. Paul.

Honorable mentions in poetry are Hieu Minh Nguyen, Jude Nutter, Katharine Rauk, and Leslie Adrienne Miller. In children's literature the honorable mentions are Aimee Bissonette, Dara Dokas, Stephanie Watson and Stephen Shaskan.

The McKnight Artist Fellowships for Writers is now in its 34th year. Previous winners include Robert Bly, Ed Bok Lee, Jim Moore, and William Kent Krueger.

Judges for this year's competition were Patrick Rosal for poetry and Andrea Davis Pinkney for children's literature.