We are pleased to announce the prize winners for our 2014 American Short Fiction Contest. Contest judge Amy Hempel chose these stories out of a wealth of terrific submissions.
The first-place prize goes to Scott Gloden, for his story “What Is Louder,” about a young man who works in a post office and his brother who is a soldier in Pakistan. Amy Hempel praised the story for its newness, commenting, “the ending is unnerving, very unsettling, and continues the story in a reader’s imagination.” Gloden will receive $1,000, and his story will be published in our upcoming fall issue.
Scott Gloden is a regular contributor to Tweed’s Book Blog. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and presently resides in Brooklyn, New York.
The second-place prize goes to Lydia Fitzpatrick, for her story “Safety,” about a school shooting. Hempel wrote, “‘Safety’ achieves a literally breathtaking quality almost immediately, and never lets go. The narration of terror is well-calibrated without being sensationalized at all.” Fitzpatrick will receive $500 with her prize.
Lydia Fitzpatrick‘s fiction has appeared in Glimmer Train, Mid-American Review, and Opium. She received her MFA in 2010 from the University of Michigan, where she was the recipient of a Hopwood Award and a Colby Fellowship. Since graduating, she’s been awarded a Carl Djerassi Fiction Fellowship from the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing and an Elizabeth George Foundation grant. She is currently a Wallace Stegner Fellow in fiction at Stanford University. She’s working on her first novel and lives in San Francisco with her husband and daughter.
Many thanks to Amy Hempel for judging the contest, and congratulations to both winners!