Posts in "Awards" Category — Page 2

Awards / April 19, 2017

Bystanders Wins the Balcones Fiction Prize!

I am thrilled to announce that Bystanders has won the Balcones Fiction Prize, which is awarded by Austin Community College to an outstanding book of fiction published in 2016. My book was among stellar finalists–Brightfellow by Rikki Ducornet, Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter, Heirlooms by Rachel Hall, Landfall by Julie Hensley, and Sleeping on Jupiter by Anuradha Roy–and I’m humbled to be in their company.

Final judge Amanda Eyre Ward had this to say about Bystanders:

“Her stories pulsed with energy and excitement, like small lightning storms on the page. I was constantly surprised by her characters, and finished the book wishing there were more. I think she is a real talent–original and vibrant–and I’m excited to celebrate her work.”

Past winners of the prize have included Margaret Malone’s People Like You, William Giraldi’s Hold the Dark, Douglas Trevor’s Girls I Know, Hanna Pylvainen’s We Sinners, Katherine Karlin’s Send Me Work, and Linh Dinh’s Love Like Hate.

Thanks so much to Joe O’Connell and everyone in the creative writing department at ACC for your support. Thanks also to SFWP publisher Andrew Gifford for taking a chance on Bystanders.

I’m looking forward to visiting Austin next year, where I’m told the Museum of the Weird is a must-see destination for those of us who appreciate all things creepy.

Awards, Musings / June 28, 2016

Metaphors for Flash Fiction, with ‘Sex’ Substituted for ‘Flash’

Last year when we opened up application submissions for the Kathy Fish Fellowship at SmokeLong Quarterly, we asked writers to send a brief essay about why they like flash fiction and what they hope to get out of the fellowship if they win. We got a lot of really great responses to this question, and many many metaphors for what flash is like. After reading hundreds of these essays, though, my brain started to fire in different ways—namely in that ‘twelve-year-old-boy-sense-of-humor’ kind of way.

We’ve done away with that question for this year’s round of applicants, replaced by a few other more targeted questions. But in homage to all the great responses we got last year, I present to you excerpts from a few essays with “flash fiction” replaced with “sex”:

  • Sex provides pressure, a quick release of energy.
  • I thrive in these tight spaces.
  • Sex appeals to me because I can do so in one sitting, on a device like a laptop or smartphone, and because I often find that it makes me think about the nature of storytelling.
  • I love that sex is palpable, always in bite sized pieces and how it never leaves me with a sense of wanting more or less.
  • I like sex that is quick, visceral and unapologetic.
  • My strongest sexual encounters have been the ones where I didn’t sit down with a plan and a goal.
  • Sex is a bursting blossom from a poetic bud.
  • The kick in the teeth lures me as much as the wonder I experience when I have sex.
  • With sex, a single word can make or break the emotional tone overall.
  • I’ve had an appetite for sex since I was fourteen.
  • In the same way the straw wrapper winds up an accordion on the diner’s table or my wife touches each knob on the stove exactly once before leaving, I have sex.
  • One of the best parts of sex is knowing I can enter someone’s reading space, tell them a humorous anecdote or swiftly punch them in the gut, and then leave them comforted or haunted long after I’ve left.

There you go! By the way, application submissions for the 2017 Kathy Fish Fellowship open on July 15, 2016. For more information on the prize and guidelines, check out this page.

*Photo by Juhan Sonin and used via Flickr Creative Commons.

Awards, Publication News / March 13, 2016

First-place win in KYSO Flash

So pleased to learn that my flash “Ladies Night” won first place in the KYSO Flash Triple-F Writing Challenge. The challenge was to write a 500-word or less story or poem that uses the words flicker, fierce, and fool. I usually get paralyzed by word writing prompts, but somehow this one worked. Thanks to Clare MacQueen and the editors at KYSO Flash for all their kind words about the piece. You can find my story and the other winners, honorable mentions, and finalists here. 

 

*Photo courtesy of unsplash (Sergio Alves Santos)

 

Awards / August 30, 2011

Press 53 Open Awards Anthology

My story “Dendrochronology,” which originally appeared in The Northville Review, won second place in Press 53’s 2011 Open Awards Series and will appear in the Open Awards anthology in October 2011.

My story “The Etiquette of Dementia,” originally published in The Mid-American Review, was a finalist in the short-short story category.

Thanks to Kevin Watson and all the folks at Press 53. Looking forward to the awards ceremony on October 22!

Awards / October 16, 2010

First Place in the Santa Fe Writers Project Lit Awards

My short story collection-in-progress, Black Diamond City, won first place in the Santa Fe Writers Project 2010 Literary Awards, judged by Robert Olen Butler.

Thanks much to Andrew Gifford and the folks at SFWP for all their hard work. Thanks also to Mr. Butler, whose work I highly admire. I am very honored to have been chosen for this award.

Black Diamond City is a collection of very short stories set in or inspired by my hometown of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. You may notice if you click on my novel page that BDC is the title of that as well. I have decided to condense that novel significantly (from 500 pages to 25!) and try something completely different. Fingers crossed it works.

Awards / May 14, 2010

Short List News

My story “Only a Number,” published by decomP in September 2009, was noted on Wigleaf‘s Short List for their Top 50 of 2009. Also, my short story “Like Everyone Else” made storySouth‘s list of Notable Online Stories of 2009. Sweet!