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 Iliad Once Again.”
*Second Prize: Malaika King Albrecht of Pinehurst, NC for “On Your Birth Day,” “Sweat Test for Cystic Fibrosis,” and “Swift Water.”
*Honorable Mention: Ellaraine Lockie of Sunnyvale, CA for “Saying Good-Bye,” “A Matter of Degree,” and “Seed of a Serial Killer.”
Finalists:
Bobby Sidna Hart of Advance, NC for “Weymouth House Bath,” “How She Was Found,” and “Frozen Wood.”
Carolyn Moore of Tigard, OR for “The Selkie Discovers the Information Age,” “Two Conversations in a White, White Kitchen,” and “What the Apple Whispered.”
Clinton B Campbell of Beaufort, SC for “I Want to Dance with Rita Dove,” “The Day My Wife Kissed Pat Conroy,” and “Front Row Seat.”
Ellaraine Lockie of Sunnyvale, CA for “Godot Goes to Montana,” “Inheritance,” and “Should Have Been a Boy.”
Kory Wells of Murfreesboro, TN for “At The Old-Time Jamboree,” “Honky, 1971,” and “Tired of the Same Old Answers.”
Lisa Zerkle of Charlotte, NC for “The Strain and Snap,” “Bitter,” and “How to Hold a Grudge.”
Maureen A. Sherbondy of Raleigh, NC for “One Year After Your Death,” “Praying at Coffee Shops in the South,” and “Dust.”
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”
*Honorable Mention: Judith Sudilovsky of Jerusalem, Israel for “Basma Rides the Bus”
Finalists:
Jan Parker of Fuquay Varina, NC for “Where Bugs Walk On Water”
Jim Meehan of Norfolk, VA for “The Storm”
Marcy Darin of Oak Park, IL for “The Stone Thrower”
Mesha Maren of Asheville, NC for “Among Women”
Michelle Nichols of Hattiesburg, MS for “The Death of the Fire Baton Twirler”
Ray Morrison of Winston-Salem, NC for “Getting The Message”
Short-Short Story: Judge: Scott Yarbrough
*First Prize: Kirk Barrett of Wilmington, NC for “Sarajevo Roses”
*Second Prize: Jesse Tangen-Mills of Bogota, Columbia for “Twenty Ways to Love Before Dying”
*Honorable Mention: Sylvia D. Lynch of New Tazewell, TN for “Crawl on Out”
Finalists:
Amanda Pauley of Ellison, VA for “Sheep’s Clothing”
Jim Bainbridge of Los Angeles, CA for “War”
Melanie DeCarolis of Brookline, MA for “How to Hit a Fastball”
Mesha Maren of Asheville, NC for “Eminent Domain”
Michelle Nichols of Hattiesburg, MS for “Descension”
Nicole Louise Reid of Evanston, IN for “Two Swimmy Fishes”
Ray Morrison of Winston-Salem, NC for “Preston Manor”
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”
*Honorable Mention: Catherine Brown of Chicago, IL for “Neighbors”
Finalists:
Anne Leigh Parrish of Seattle, WA for “Surrogate”
Charles Blackburn, Jr. of Research Triangle Park, NC for “The Golden Pine Cone”
Denton Loving of Speedwell, TN for “Exorcism”
Jessica Pitchford of Tallahassee, FL for “Lendall”
Ray Morrison of Winston-Salem, NC for “Secret Santa Gift”
Ricardo Nuila of Houston, TX for “At the Bedside”
William Connor of Phoenix, AZ for “Rainmaker”
Genre Fiction: Judge: Laura Benedict
*First Prize: Alexander Lumans of Carbondale, IL for “Haruspices”
*Second Prize: Jeff Bond of Midland, MI for “Motown Mojo”
*Honorable Mention: Ray Morrison of Winston-Salem, NC for “Monster”
Finalists:
B.G. Carter of Cudjoe, FL for “One Hour Too Late, An Hour Too Early”
Lynn Veach Sadler of Sanford, NC for “Cornstalk’s Curse”
Creative Nonfiction: Judge: Dinty W. Moore
*First Prize: Laura S. Distelheim of Highland Park, IL for “On Ruthie, Whom I Couldn't Let Slip By”
*Second Prize: Kate Carroll de Gutes of Portland, OR for “Cure”
*Honorable Mention: Laura S. Distelheim of Highland Park, IL for “On Leaving Normal Behind”
Finalists:
Kate Peterson of Carrollton, GA for “Women's Issues”
Kendall Pope of Carrollton, GA for “Chicky the Coward”
Margaret R. MacInnis of Iowa City, IA for “My Father In Cars”
Paul A Myers of Gibsons, Canada for “The Earth Is Singing Into My Feet”
Paul Grindrod of Tucson, AZ for “Dueling with Einstein”
Rhett Iseman Trull of Greensboro, NC for “Believers”
Shanti E. Bannwart of Santa Fe, NM for “The Lilac Bush”
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
Honorable Mention: Garrett Rowlan of Los Angeles, CA for What Stays in Vegas
Finalists:
Blonnie Bunn Wyche of Wilmington, NC for Life With a Touch of Cinnamon
Tammy Wilson of Newton, NC for The Weed Patch
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”
*Honorable Mention: Alice Hall-Partyka of La Canada, CA for Poetry: “Rainforest,” “Patchwork,” and “Mindless Power”
Finalists:
Clara Fannjiang of Davis, CA for Poetry: “Chevron's Lament,” “Jan,” and “Twelfth Window”
Sydney Bader of Richland, WA for Poetry: “Highway,” “Tryout,” and “Migraine”
Open Awards 2009
Press 53 . PO Box 30314, Winston-Salem, NC 27130-0314 Email Us
Meet Our Judges
POETRY: Kathryn Stripling Byer
Kathryn Stripling Byer, currently North Carolina's Poet Laureate, was born and raised on a farm in South Georgia. She received her B. A. from Wesleyan College in Macon, Ga. and her MFA degree from UNC-Greensboro in 1968, studying with former Laureate Fred Chappell. She has published five books of poetry, including The Girl in the Midst of the Harvest, (Associated Writing Programs Award Series), Wildwood Flower, (Lamont Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets), Catching Light, (L.A. Times Book Award Nominee and Southern Independent Booksellers Award for Poetry), and Coming to Rest. Her essays have appeared in numerous newspapers and anthologies. The 2007 recipient of the Hanes Award for Poetry from The Fellowship of Southern Writers, she lives in Cullowhee, surrounded by the Blue Ridge Mountains. Website: ncarts.org/poet_laureate.cfm and ncpoetlaureate.blogspot.com
FLASH FICTION: Mark Budman
Mark Budman's works have appeared or are about to appear in such magazines as Weird Tales, Mississippi Review, Virginia Quarterly, Exquisite Corpse, Iowa Review, McSweeney's, Turnrow, Connecticut Review, WW Norton anthology Flash Fiction Forward, and elsewhere. He is the publisher of a flash fiction magazine Vestal Review. His novel My Life at First Try is forthcoming from Counterpoint, and the anthology he co-edited for Ooligan Press, You Have Time for This, came out in November 2007.
SHORT-SHORT STORY: Scott Yarbrough
Scott Yarbrough is a graduate of the writing program at Florida State University and holds a PhD in American Literature from the University of Alabama. His fiction has appeared in Flyway, Iron Horse Literary Review, Main Street Rag, Clackamas Literary Review, New Orleans Review, Thirteen Stories, Apalachee Quarterly, and 42Opus. A story in storySouth was nominated for a Pushcart and chosen as a “whale sighting” by Moby Lives. In 2004 he attended the Sewanee Writer’s Conference as a Tennessee Williams Scholar; he has published articles and nonfiction in such journals as Black Warrior Review, The Southern Literary Journal, South Atlantic Review, and The Faulkner Journal. He has also coauthored a textbook, A Practical Introduction to Literary Study (Prentice Hall, 2005). He currently teaches at Charleston Southern University and lives just outside Charleston, South Carolina. (from Blackbird, an online journal of literature and the arts)
CREATIVE NONFICTION: Dinty W. Moore
Dinty W. Moore was born and raised in Erie, Pennsylvania, and spent his formative years fishing for bluegill, riding a bike with a banana seat, and dodging the Sisters of St. Joseph. He earned a BA in writing from the University of Pittsburgh, worked briefly as a journalist, and also served short stints as a documentary filmmaker, modern dance performer, zookeeper, and Greenwich Village waiter. It was only after failing at each of these professions that he went on to earn an MFA in fiction writing from Louisiana State University. A National Endowment for the Arts fellowship recipient, Moore has guest taught creative nonfiction seminars across the United States and in Europe. In addition to editing the internet journal, Brevity, he is on the editorial board of Creative Nonfiction and is coordinating editor for the anthology Best Creative Nonfiction (W.W. Norton). Moore teaches writing at Ohio University and serves on the Board of Directors of The Association of Writers & Writing Programs. (from the blog Dinty W. Moore 3.0)
YOUNG WRITERS: Tavia Stewart
Tavia is not only able to hold down the fort as the the Young Writers Program Director at the Office of Letters and Light (National Novel Writing Month), she also writes novels, plans art happenings for the magazine Watchword Press, and runs with the wild and crazy crew that makes up the More Cowgirl Writers Collective in San Francisco. She's worked with the genius minds at both 826 Valencia and McSweeney's Publishing, and in her younger years, worked as a waitress, a record store manager, a cashier at a grocery store, and a math tutor. She is currently working on an online Choose Your Own Adventure novel and editing many old and neglected short stories. Her work has appeared in print in Smoke Long Quarterly and has been read out loud at many cafes in the Bay Area.
NOVELLA: Ashley Warlick
Ashley Warlick is the author of three novels, The Distance From The Heart of Things (1996), The Summer After June (2000), and Seek the Living (2005), all published by Houghton Mifflin. She is the youngest winner of the Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship, a founding member of the advisory board for the Novello Festival Press, and book columnist for several newspapers. In 2006, she received a fellowship in literature from the National Endowment for the Arts. She teaches in the M.F.A. program at Queens University in Charlotte, North Carolina, and at the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities. (from the 2008 Iowa Summer Writing Festival website) Photo by Piper Warlick.
GENRE FICTION: Laura Benedict
Laura Benedict is the author of the novel, Isabella Moon. Her short fiction has appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine and several anthologies. Her second novel, Calling Mr. Lonely Hearts, will be available in hardcover from Random House in December 2008. For the past decade, she’s worked as a freelance book reviewer for The Grand Rapids Press in Michigan and other newspapers. She lives in Southern Illinois with her husband, Pinckney Benedict. Visit Laura at www.laurabenedict.com.
Literate Yourself! TM
We are pleased to announce the results of the 2009 Press 53 Open Awards writing contest
SHORT STORY: Rusty Barnes
Rusty Barnes grew up in rural northern Appalachia. He received his B.A. from Mansfield University of Pennsylvania and his M.F.A. from Emerson College. His fiction, poetry and non-fiction have appeared in many journals, including Post Road, Slat Flats Annual, and the Red Rock Review. He's taught writing for over fifteen years at Emerson College, Northeastern University, Grub Street and the Parlor. After editing fiction for the Beacon Street Review (now Redivider) and Zoetrope All-Story Extra, he co-founded Night Train, a literary journal which has been featured in the Boston Globe, The New York Times, and on National Public Radio. Sunnyoutside Press published Breaking it Down, a collection of his flash fiction, and a collection of his short stories is forthcoming, also from Sunnyoutside Press.He maintains webspace at www.rustybarnes.com.
The results are in for the 2009 Press 53 Open Awards writing contest.
First-prize winners will receive a beautiful etched-glass award, personalized with his or her name and the title(s) of the winning entry.
All entries marked with an asterisk will be published in the 2009 Press 53 Open Awards Anthology in October. All finalists will receive a copy of the anthology. The anthology will also include a Special Recognitions page listing all participants who had two or more entries as finalists in one or more categories.
I want to thank everyone who entered and made our judges’ jobs so difficult. The quality of the entries was remarkable.
2009 Press 53 Open Awards Anthology
ISBN: 978-0-9824416-9-5
8.5 x 5.5 paperback, 202 pages
$14 (NC residents pay sales tax)
Contest finalists get two copies for the price of one. Place your order for 1/2 of the copies you want. Any questions, email kevin@press53.com
Available Now!
Attention Contest Winners:
See below for special offer
First Annual Press 53 Open Awards Anthology (2008)
8.5 x 5.5 Paperback
$12.95
