Near tears, a visibly shaken Edgar Poon (center) hears that his essay has been disqualified and does not win the grand-prize trip to Darwin as first announced. Judges nixed Mr. Poon's essay--only seconds before he was to receive the coveted first prize--because it was one word over the 500-word limit. (The essay review committee mistakenly counted "two holer" as one word.) Unfortunately, Mr. Poon travelled at his own expense to the awards ceremony at Fred's Dusty Vagabond Motel in Fresno, California, all the way from his native Maine after learning that his essay, "What I Like Best About Darwin," was chosen over 20,000 others (Moe Moto photo).

Past winners