Narrative Spring Story Contest winners and finalists:

First Prize: Anthony Marra
Second Prize: Jane Delury
Third Prize: Paul Griner

Finalists: Alethea Black, Evan Christopher Burton, Vicky Grut, Jeff O’Keefe, Denise Morrissey, Jay Neugeboren, Mohan Sikka, Debra Spark, Jackie Thomas-Kennedy, Jill Widner

Narrative offers the following upcoming contests for writers:

The Fall 2009 Story Contest, with a First Prize of $3,250, a Second Prize of $1,500, a Third Prize of $750, and ten finalists receiving $100 each, is open to fiction and nonfiction entries from all writers. Deadline: November 30, 2009

The Narrative 30 Below Story Contest, with a First Prize of $1,500, a Second Prize of $750, a Third Prize of $300, and ten finalists receiving $100 each, is open to all artists and authors, ages eighteen to thirty. Deadline: October 29, 2009

Know any shark lovers? The Aquarium of the Pacific (Long Beach, CA) held a poetry contest to salute the Aquarium’s Shark Summer. Aquarium members and guests were invited to participate; poets were asked to express their feelings about sharks and/or rays and to use no more than 200 words. All entries were judged by poets Will Alexander and Jeffrey Yang and Aquarium President and CEO Jerry Schubel and four winners were selected:

First Place – Ellaraine Lockie
Second Place – Anna Leahy
Third Place (tied) – Benjamin Morris and Donna Ashbaugh

All poems are available on the aquarium’s website.

Tupelo Press has announced Judge Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s selections for the Snowbound 2008-2009 Chapbook Contest:

If St. Augustine Were a Butcher Like My Grandfather by Brandon Som.

The Rafters of David by Kimberly Burwick was runner-up.

Finalists: J. David Cummings, Jennifer Kwon Dobbs, Barbara Duffy, Eileen G’Sell, Susan Gubernaut, Steven Lautermilch, Mary Leader, Mary Molinary, John Surowiecki, Jonathan Weinert.

July is Open Submissions month at Tupelo.

Jennifer K. Sweeney is the winner of the 2009 Perugia Press Prize: “Perugia Press publishes one collection of poetry each year, by a woman at the beginning of her publishing career. Our mission is to produce beautiful books that interest long-time readers of poetry and welcome those new to poetry. We also aim to celebrate and promote poetry whenever we can.”

Sweeney’s book, How to Live on Bread and Music, along with sample poems from the collection, is available on the Perugia Press website.

FIRST PLACE
White Space by Janet Burroway
“HIS WRIST IS furred in gold and banded with a, Jesus, Rolex. From the sidewalk it was any other clapboard student digs, but now I remember that he comes from bucks, does Goldenhair. Kenilworth Adamson Lowenthal. What kind of parents pick three dactyls for a name?”

SECOND PLACE
New Year’s Weekend on the Hand Surgery Ward, Old Pilgrims’ Hospital, Naples, Italy by Adam Atlas
“WHEN THE AMBULANCE guys finally came, they were put out and winded. They asked me if I had a plastic bag for the piece of thumb and they watched with their arms folded while I stumbled around and found them a plastic bag.”

THIRD PLACE
That Ain’t Jazz by David Bradley
“COUSIN BERNARD AGREES that I’m trouble, with a capital T. The family buzz is, I’m destined for college. If I don’t get with it now, he says, I’ll end up with some intellectual gig and be swallowed by the Negro Bourgeoisie.”

READ THE WINNING STORIES.

Upcoming Contests:

The FIRST ANNUAL POETRY CONTEST, with $3,300 in prizes.
Entry deadline: July 18.

The SPRING 2009 STORY CONTEST, with $6,500 in prizes.
Entry deadline: July 31.

The Summer 2009 issue of American Short Story (v12 i44) includes “Mask of Destiny” by Karen Gentry winner of the annual American Short Fiction contest. Second place went to Robert Glick.

The most recent issue of Western Humanities Review (Summer 2009) includes works by the winners of the 16th Annual Utah Writers’ Contest. First prize in prose went to Matthew Kirkpatrick for “Different Distances”; first prize in poetry went to Christine Marshall for “Fits of White” (though she has several other poems published in this issue and not the one named in the contest).

Teresa Stores was selected by Tayari Jones as Kore Press Short Fiction Winner 2010 for her story “Frost Heaves.” She is the author of three novels and her work has appeared in numerous literary journals. Stores is an associate professor of English at the University of Hartford.

The runners-up are Margaret Cardillo with “Hysterical,” and Patricia Engel with “The Bridge.”

More than fifty short-story collections have appeared in the Flannery O’Connor Award series, which was established to encourage gifted emerging writers by bringing their work to a national readership. The first prize-winning book was published in 1983; the award has since become an important proving ground for writers and a showcase for the talent and promise that have brought about a resurgence in the short story as a genre. Winners are selected through an annual competition that attracts as many as three hundred manuscripts. Winners for 2009 whose works will be published this fall are: Geoffrey Becker for Black Elvis and Lori Ostlund for The Bigness of the World.

The sixth annual storySouth Million Writers Award is now closed. The winners, based on the popular vote of readers, are:

First place: “The Fisherman’s Wife” by Jenny Williams (LitNImage)
Runner-up: “Fuckbuddy” by Roderic Crooks (Eyeshot)
Honorable mention (third place): “No Bullets in the House” by Geronimo Madrid (Drunken Boat)

The newest issue of Newport Review online includes the winners of their Flash Fiction Contest:

First Prize
“Company of Heaven” by Marc Harshman

Second Prize
“Mirror” by F. J. Bergmann

Third Prize
“Real Self” by Suzanne Lamb

Honorable Mention
“Take Me Away, Spank Junkies” by Penni Jones
“Loose” by Tammy Delatorre

Redivider Quickie Contest 2009 Winners & Finalists

Prose
Judged by George Singleton
Winner: “Confession” by John Stadler
Finalists: J. Bowers, Ashley Luster, Roberta Hartling Gates, James Tadd Adcox

Poetry
Judged by Rane Arroyo
Winner: “Tinnitus Valentine” by Erin Keane
Finalists: Judy Halebsky, T.A. Noonan, Sean Keck, Donna Vorreyer

Press 53 has announced the winners for their 2009 Open Awards – honorable mentions and finalists can be found on the Press 53 website.

Young Writers (13-17)
Judge Tavia Stewart
First Prize: Beckett Bathanti of Vilas, NC for Short Story: “The Return”
Second Prize: Clara Fannjiang of Davis, CA for Poetry: “Letter to My Sentry,” “Foible,” and “Shakespeare’s Curse”

Poetry
Judge Kathryn Stripling Byer
First Prize: Janice Townley Moore of Young Harris, GA for “Windows Filled With Gifts,” “I’d Like to Think the Truth About the World,” and “Beginning Homer’s Illiad Once Again.”
Second Prize: Malaika King of Pinehurst, NC for “On Your Birth Day,” “Sweat Test for Cystic Fibrosis,” and “Swift Water.”

Flash Fiction
Judge Mark Budman
First Prize: Shannon Barton-Wren of San Francisco, CA for “San Diego, 1978”
Second Prize: Jason Stout of Atlanta, GA for “Paper Boats”

Short-Short Story
Judge Scott Yarbrough
First Prize: Kirk Barrett of Wilmington, NC for “Sarajevo Roses”
Second Prize: Jesse Tangen-Mills of Bogata, Columbia for “Twenty Ways to Love Before Dying”

Short Story
Judge Rusty Barnes
First Prize: Ryan Stone of Rossville, IL for “Run Nowhere”
Second Prize: Taylor Brown of San Francisco, CA for “Kingdom Come”

Genre Fiction
Judge Laura Benedict
First Prize: Alexander Lumans of Carbondale, IL for “Haruspices”
Second Prize: Jeff Bond of Midland, MI for “Motown Mojo”

Creative Nonfiction
Judge Dinty W. Moore
First Prize: Laura S. Distelheim of Highland Park, IL for “On Ruth, Whom I Couldn’t Let Slip By”
Second Prize: Kate Carroll de Gutes of Portland, OR for “Cure”

Novella
Judge Ashley Warlick
First Prize: Jan Parker of Fuquay-Varina, NC for Hard Times and Happenstance
Second Prize: J.W. Robison of Effingham, IL for The True Adventures of Mustard Tater

Glimmer Train has just chosen the winning stories for their January Family Matters competition. This quarterly competition is open to all writers for stories about family, with a word count range of 500-12,000.

First place: Jeremiah Chamberlin of Ann Arbor, MI, wins $1200 for “What We Can”. His story will be published in the Summer 2010 issue of Glimmer Train Stories, out in May 2010.

Second place: Yuval Zalkow of Portland, OR, wins $500 for “God and Buses”. His story will also be published in an upcoming issue of Glimmer Train Stories, increasing his prize to $700.

Third place: Adam Rensch of Bronxville, NY, wins $300 for “Everything in Its Right Place”. His story will also be published in an upcoming issue of Glimmer Train Stories, increasing his prize to $700.

A PDF of the Top 25 winners can be found here.

Also: Fiction Open competition (deadline soon approaching! March 31)

The Independent Weekly has announced their selection of picks for their 2009 Poetry Issue. Preliminary judges Brian Howe and Jaimee Hills passed along their selections to kathryn l. pringle who selected the following:

First Place: Christopher Salerno
Second Place: Alisha Gard
Third Place: James A. Hawley
Honorable Mention: C.P. Mangel

All have MP3s for your listening pleasure along with their poems to read.

Or at least for this year. Congratulations go to Morgan Ross for winning the Hayden’s Ferry Review Worst Love Poem/Flash Fiction Contest. Here’s just one stanza:

Your nose
is straight like an arrow,
it points to my heart.

You know you want to read it all…

Glimmer Train has just chosen the winning stories of their November Short Story Award for New Writers competition.

First place: Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig of Austin, TX, wins $1200 for “Monkeys of the Sea”. Her story will be published in the Spring 2010 issue of Glimmer Train Stories, out in February 2010.

Second place: Stephen McCabe of Oshkosh, WI, wins $500 for “The Net of Blue Angels”.

Third place: Marco Fernando Navarro of Flushing, NY, wins $300 for “Enough”.

A PDF of the Top 25 winners can be found here. This competition is held twice a year and is open to any writer who has not had fiction appear in a print publication with a circulation greater than 5000. Click here for guidelines.

Also: Family Matters competition (deadline soon approaching! January 31)

Glimmer Train hosts this competition quarterly for stories about family, and first place brings $1200 plus publication in the journal. It’s open to all writers, and the word count range is 500-12,000. Click here for guidelines.

2008 Anderbo Poetry Prize

Winner
Kathleen M. Kelley for her poems “The Waiting Room” & “My Real Mother”
She receives: $500 cash
Publication on anderbo.com

2008 Anderbo Poetry Prize Poems of Distinction
“Fugitive Memory” by Penelope Scambly Schott
“Graal” by Carol Quinn
“What Your Life Did While You Were Away” by Leslie Vryenhoek

Glimmer Train announces the three winning stories of our July Family Matters competition:

First place: Nellie Hermann of Brooklyn, NY, wins $1,200 for “Can We Let the Baby Go?”. Her story will be published in the Winter 2010 issue of Glimmer Train Stories, out in November 2009.

Second place: Stephanie Freele of Healdsburg, CA, wins $500 for “Us Hungarians”. Her story will also be published in an upcoming issue of Glimmer Train Stories, increasing her prize to $700.

Third place: Rolf Yngve, of Coronado, CA, wins $300 for “Going Back for His Brother”. His story will also be published in an upcoming issue of Glimmer Train Stories, increasing his prize to $700.

A PDF of the Top 25 winners can be found here. This quarterly competition is open to all writers for stories about family (word count range is 1,200-12,000). Submissions may be sent for the October Family Matters using the Glimmer Train online submissions system at www.glimmertrain.org.

Also: Fiction Open contest (deadline soon approaching! September 30)

Glimmer Train hosts this contest four times a year, and first place is $2,000 plus publication in the journal. It’s open to all writers and all themes, with a word count range of 2,000-20,000. Click here for complete guidelines.

Glimmer Train has selected the three winning stories of the February Very Short Fiction competition! This competition is held twice a year for short stories under 3000 words in length:

First place: Cynthia Gregory of Concord, CA wins $1200 for “Melting at Both Ends.” Her story will be published in the Summer 2009 issue of Glimmer Train Stories.

Second place: Michael Schiavone of Gloucester, MA, wins $500 for “Ghost Pain.” His story will also be published in an upcoming issue of Glimmer Train Stories, increasing his prize to $700.

Third place: Linda Stansberry of Honeydew, CA, wins $300 for “Home for Good.”

The May Short Story Award for New Writers is now open. Authors are eligible whose fiction has not appeared in a publication with a circulation greater than 5000. Send stories up to 12,000 words using the online submissions system at www.glimmertrain.org.

The Nation announces that Ryan Thoreson of Fargo, North Dakota has won the second annual Nation Student Writing Contest. Thoreson, a 2007 graduate of Harvard University, wrote “Candidates: Leave US Alone,” which argues that the electorate’s top priority should be the re-establishment of the right to privacy, which has been under siege for decades. Thoreson essay was published in the October 22, 2007 issue of The Nation.

Five finalists were also chosen and their essays are available online:
Jason Kaye, Weston HighSchool, Weston, CT
Ketan Ramakrishnan, MadisonHigh School, Madison,WA
Ned Resnikoff, Middletown High School, Middletown, CT
Daniel Mootz, Carlisle HighSchool, Carlisle, PA
Alyssa Battistoni, Stanford University

**Attention student activists! If you’re involved in organizing an event on your campus or in your community and would like to distribute free copies of The Nation, click here.**

Perugia Press publishes one collection of poetry each year, by a woman at the beginning of her publishing career. Beg No Pardon by Lynne Thompson, winner of the 2007 Perugia Press Prize, has just been released. Visit Perugia Press website for details and ordering information.

The winner of the 2007 Million Writers Award for best online short story is “Urchins, While Swimming” by Catherynne M. Valente, published in Clarkesword Magazine. Valente’s story received 31% of the public vote. The runner-ups were “All the Way to Grangeville” by A. Ray Norsworthy (Eclectica Magazine) and “The Infinite Monkey Theorem” by Marshall Moore (Word Riot).