SHORT STORY CONTEST

2023 SHORT STORY WINNERS
WILL BE ANNOUNCED IN JUNE/JULY!

2022 RESULTS

FIRST PRIZE ($1,000):
“The Women in the Club”
P. Jo Anne Burgh

SECOND PRIZE ($100):
“A Gap in the Fence of Time”
Paul B. Cohen

HONORABLE MENTION ($25):
“Death by Almond Butter”
Michael Golder
“Hypotheticals”
Carol M. Quinn
“The List”
James Mathews

NOTABLE STORIES:
“Orchid” Andrew Stancek
“Flowers for Veronica” Shell St. James
“Not to Waste This Life” Efrem Sigel
“Picking Up Shards” Elaine Crauder
“Romeo’s Day Off” Harper Darnell
“One Big Fat Tree” Beth Nixon Weaver
“Arizona Words” Lucy Gardner
“Voices” Enid Harlow
“Anatomy of a Fanatic” Michael Gurin
“Elbistan” Hardy Griffin
“A Neighborhood Nearby” Shira Musicant

 Congratulations to the authors and a huge Thank You to all who entered this year’s contest. It was an honor to read your stories. They have taken us around the world and back!

Thanks also to our amazing staff of volunteer readers for their dedication and for giving each and every entry a fair chance. Without them this issue would not be possible.

2021 RESULTS

FIRST PRIZE ($1,000):
“Moths”
Kathleen Spivack

SECOND PRIZE ($100):
“Banjo”
Earl LeClaire

HONORABLE MENTION ($25):
“The Sending”
Andrle Ward
“Captivated: a Siren’s Tale”
Chloe Benjamin-Brown
“Glass Houses”
Julia Morris

NOTABLE STORIES:
“Rear View” Patricia O’Donnell
“Life and Death in Laverty” Lee Mullican
“They Are Not You” H.E. Francis
“The Living and the Lost” Bobbie Cyphers
“Still Life of the During” Tyler Econa
“Wide-Open” Karen L. George
“Holiday Plans” Mary Hawley
“Sonic Hedgehog” Nina Hipps
“Eye Witness” Gerald Usrey

2020 RESULTS

FIRST PRIZE ($1,000):

“The Cure”
by Candi Lavender

SECOND PRIZE ($100):

“The Edge of Something”
by Audrey Ryer

HONORABLE MENTION ($25):
“The Purse” by Sharie Kelley
“A Girl in a Calico Dress” by Carolina Mintz
“Slaughtering Goats” by Marie G. Coleman

NOTABLE STORIES:
“Sometimes a Piano Is Just a Piano” by William Peter Collins
“Christmas on Steroids” by Christopher Helvey
“I Made Pancakes” by Marianne Garvey
“The Happiest Person in Honolulu” by Marion Immerman
“Dancing with El Ray” by Rick Forbess
“The Roswell Diaries” by Dawn Burns
“100 Days” by Elizabeth Cain
“Prove It” by Jack Vian
“The Way It Falls” by H.E. Francis

2019 RESULTS

FIRST PRIZE ($5,000):

“A Spoon Will Catch the Dark Girls’ Pain”
by Susann Cokal

SECOND PRIZE ($250):

“A Starting Place”
by Stephanie Renee Payne

HONORABLE MENTION ($50):
“Twins” by Bonnie West
“Memoirs of Amazonia” by Esther Cohen
“Dave & Stranger” by Edmund Rodriguez

NOTABLE STORIES:
“Grace Fell First” by Lisa Walker
“The New Normal” by Alexander Jones
“When We Were Bad” by Evelyn Krieger
“The Same for Me” by Jack Clinton
“Establishing Keshav” by Lalit Nigam
“Frank’s Heart” by Cal Lewis
“That Boy in Seat 2A” by Geoffrey K. Graves
“The Girl Who Learned to Fly” by Paul Hellweg
“Two of a Kind” by Terri Scullen

2018 RESULTS

FIRST PRIZE ($1,000):

“Bedlam”
by George Harrar

SECOND PRIZE ($100):

“Her Last Dance”
by Evelyn Krieger

HONORABLE MENTION ($25):
“All the Acorns on the Forest Floor” by Kim Hooper
“Without a Sigh” by R.S. Wynn
“The Hand in Motion” by S.J. Cahill

NOTABLE STORIES:
“Viola Hamilton’s Journey to Real Happiness” by Letty Butler
“The House of Correction” by Jendi Reiter
“Ravenous Mermaids” by Dawn Sperber
“Fanfare for the Common Man” by M. E. Kopp
“Day of the Dead” by Catherine Marenghi
“Panopticon” by Logan de Freitas
“Resourcefulness: a Surf Diary” by Mary Clark
“The Shape of Things” by Stephen Coates
“Pep Rally” by Devan Burton
“Callista” by Pat Rohner
“Cash Redemption” by Alice Hatcher

2017 RESULTS

FIRST PRIZE ($1,000):

“Epiphany on the E Train”
by Alyssa Metcalfe

SECOND PRIZE ($100):

“Bones, Burns & Bedpans”
by Saffron Marchant

HONORABLE MENTION ($25 EACH):
“Love Rhyme Number 51” by Edward Alban
“Matriarch” by Fern Lee
“The Red Apron in Heaven” by Tammy Lee

NOTABLE STORIES:
“Mystery of the Mantua Skeletons” by Jesse Arthur Stone
“#theprocedure” by Jeanne Althouse
“Tiernan’s Last Stand” by Richard T. Rook
“Danny O’Reilley’s War” by Robert B. Robeson
“P.O.W.” by J.R. Mues
“Retribution at the Home of Guiding Hands” by Jim Musgrave
“Eye of Newt” by Barbara Brockway
“Middle Eastern Lunch” by Lisa Jisa
“The Stairs” by Lauren Bamber
“Coney Island, 1978” by Sarah McElwain
“Joni Mitchell Was Wrong” by Linda Rosen
“The Grove” by Nikki Broadwell
“An Affair of the Heart” by Phylis Campbell Dryden
“Black Orchids” by Antoine Maurice Devine

2016 RESULTS

FIRST PLACE  ($1,000):

“Small Onya”
by Laura Lovic-Lindsay

SECOND PLACE ($100):

“Coin Tricks & Other War Tactics”
by Richard Squires

HONORABLE MENTION ($25):
“The Crying Woman” by Barbara Boehm Miller
“Cases Like This” by Ray Busler
“The Memory of Miriam” by Kelly Glass

NOTABLE STORIES:
“Wild Notes” by Kathryn Williams
“Sun Face” by Norma Connor
“Turning the Page” by Gloria Whelan
“Cresc.” by Anna Hundert
“Odibil” by Todd Reppert
“Magic Hair” by Shanteé Felix
“Refugees” by Teresa Burns Gunther
“Me ‘n’ Axl” by V. Joseph Racanelli

2015 RESULTS

FIRST PLACE ($1,000):

“Everybody Shimmies Now”
by Drew Hardman

SECOND PLACE ($100):

“Donor Number 2000-799”
by Yong Takahashi

HONORABLE MENTION ($25):
“The Luckiest Kids in the World” by Heather Whited
“Tidying Up” by Hilary Sloin
“Air Force Ones” by Lisa J. Sharon

NOTABLE STORIES:
“The Extent of Women’s Mercy” by Willonee Simone
“Letters for Dreamers, Nomads for Days” by Lauren Green
“The Regency Era” by Avee Chaudhuri
“Among These Very Trees” by Valerie Cumming
“The Lodger” by David Butler
“Black Skies” by  Patricia Kester
“Numerology” by Melanie Bishop
“Cog” by Eric J. Juneau

2014 RESULTS

FIRST PLACE ($1,000):

“Patron Saint of the Confederacy”
by John Kachuba

SECOND PLACE ($100):

“The Ola Dress” by Sandra Worsham

HONORABLE MENTION ($25):
“Locked In” by Jeff Lyon
“The Favor” by Jake Teeny
“A Desert Prayer” by Sakina Fakhri
“The Birdman” by David A. Pepper

NOTABLE STORIES:
“Gaza Journal” by Timothy Jay Smith
“The Spaceman” by Rebecca Mandelbaum
“Cold War Oddity” by Ray Adams
“Posslqs” by Paula Paige
“You Are Here” by Kate Kimball
“Dreams of August” by Andrew Stancek
“After Incus” by Emily Nemens
“Point of Entry” by Martha Clarkson
“Second Rate Love Is No Life” by Petra McQueen

2013 RESULTS

1ST PLACE ($1,000):

“As Clear as Water”
by Daryl Murphy

2ND PLACE ($100):
“Rosewood”
by Kate Selker

HONORABLE MENTION ($25):
“In My Head” by Jody Callahan
“Blue Collar” by Aja Brooks
“Getting Your Goats: How to Navigate African Marriage Proposals”
by Laura Lee Huttenbach

NOTABLE STORIES:
“How I Found a Lover for My Wife” by Sophy Burnham
“Showboat” by Tia Clark
“Pieces of Light” by Rachel Shapiro
“The Color of Time” by Sharon Warner
“Army Brat” by Christina Gombar
“Favorites” by Cindy Rosmus
“In Her Sister’s Shadow” by Hannah Onoguwe
“The Dirty Windows of Books” by Jasmon Drain
“The War at Home” by Linda Davis
“A Homily for Karl Ostenberg” by Fred McGavran
“The Boy Who Had a Peach Tree Growing Out of His Head”
by Hal Ackerman

2012 RESULTS

1ST PLACE ($1,000):

“Nothing, Everything”
by Denis Wong

2ND PLACE ($100):

“I’ll Miss the Earth”
by Patricia McNamara

HONORABLE MENTION:
“The Hygienist” by Linda Davis
“Broken Glass” by Katy Motiey
“The Black Hills” by Barbara Mayor

NOTABLE STORIES
“Postings from My Other Self” by William Luvaas
“Lucky” by Cindy Rosmus
“The Exterminator” by Julia Noël Goldman
“Talbot Does Laundry” by Myra Thompson
“The Language of Our Bodies” by Reuven Goldfarb
“My Uncle’s Eyes” by Kathryn Brackett
“The Mongolian Merchant” by Mary E. Nelson
“The Beauty of Acid” by L.K. Clark
“The Fish” by Nadia Ibrashi
“The Price” by Mark Connelly
“Beyond Polite Conversation” by Dawn Lowe
“Peligro” by Willma Willis Gore

2011 RESULTS

1ST PLACE ($1,000):

“My Beautiful, Brash, Beastly Belfast”
by Seamus Scanlon 

2ND PLACE ($100):

“Little Chang”
by Paul Hellweg

HONORABLE MENTION:
“Eyes Wide Open” by Colleen Quinn
“Cecilio Breaks the Law” by Mary E. Nelson
“The Stone Carver” by Ann Marie Samson

NOTABLE STORIES:
“Soul Exchange” by Ashok Hegde
“Plegia” by Adam Phillips
“Virtuoso” by Sandy Kovack
“Respect the Weed” by George Harrar
“Mud Season” by Mara Buck
“Red Eye Express” by Michael Pearce
“The Fourth Monkey” by Kathryn Shaver
“Literacy” by Kathleen Spivack
“Roadside” by David Mohan
“967 Steps” by Austin Kentebe
“Harry’s Way East” by Kit Redeker
“Kismet” by E.B. Hantzis
“Rose Colored Glasses” by Kate Mariana Brown
“Little Games” by David Depner

2010 RESULTS

1ST PLACE ($1,000):

Hallie Rundle, “Asphalt Sky”

2ND PLACE ($100):

Evelyn Krieger, “Twenty-Ten”

HONORABLE MENTION:
Paul Barton, “Walking Down the Road”
Denise Heinze, “Trick”
David Darracott, “Claire’s Rabbits”