SHORT STORY PRIZE ARCHIVES
2023 RESULTS
FIRST PRIZE ($1,000):
“CONFLAGRATION”
Teresa Burns Gunther
SECOND PRIZE ($100):
“SIGN OF THE TIMES:
Lawton, Alabama, 1943″
Arnold Edwards
HONORABLE MENTION ($25):
“THE NEIGHBOR”
Lauren Oertel
“SIDE BY SIDE”
Darin M. Bush
“BEETS”
Halley Fehner
NOTABLE STORIES:
“The Healer” Marlon Jackson
“Old Fool” Sallie Bingham
“Above” Fiona Thackeray
“Upriver” Bradley Radovich
“The Invisible Woman” Sharon Miles
“NewMa” Belinda Wright
“Flowers” Helen Vidrine
“The New Boy” Nancy E. Quinn
“Lifeblood” Mike Kanner
“Gratitude, Shmatitude” P.G. Smith
Congratulations to the winning writers, a sincere thank you to everyone who entered, and a tip of the hat to our wonderful team of volunteer readers!
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
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”