We are delighted to announce our 2014 Fiction Contest Winners. Thank you for you patience with the unexpected delay.
Fiction judge Roxane Gay has selected the following short stories:
1st Place: “Vox Clamantis” by Jennifer Down
“Everything falls apart while a broken couple pretends to still be together for a dying mother. As Johnny and Abby try to keep up appearances for his mother and maybe for themselves, this writer deftly shows the fissures between them and the almost tender ways the couple tries to forget who they were when they couldn’t work and who they might have been if they could. This is a lovely story about many kinds of grief and anger and separation.”
2nd Place: “Night Stalkers” by Steven Ramirez
“There is a percussive energy in “Night Stalkers,” that hums from the beginning of the story to the end. Uncle Este, is a man who went to high school with infamous serial killer Richard Ramirez and he comes alive as the author weaves what we know of the serial killer what we don’t know about a high school band. The wit and imagination of this story makes it so very memorable.”
These stories will appear in this fall’s Issue 30 of Blue Mesa Review.
Congratulations to our contest winners!
