Subscriber News: January 2019
Recent Honors
Congratulations to Nick Korolev. His short story "Caldera" won the 2018 aftermath "The End of Our World" Short Story Contest, which received over 1,400 entries from around the world. He found this opportunity in our Best Free Literary Contests database. Nick says, "The end of the world story had to be based in science and being the summer naturalist for Lost River State Park and keeping up to date with anything that can go wrong in the environment I jumped on it and did a story about the super-volcano at Yellowstone erupting." The most recent submission period for this $1,000 prize was June 1-August 31. Launched in 2018, aftermath is a Netherlands-based literary journal focused on raising awareness of impending environmental crises.
Congratulations to Pete Cooper. His story "Confederate Heroes Day" won second prize in the 2018 Bethune & Son Texas Short Story Competition. This free contest from a men's Western clothing purveyor gives prizes up to $1,000, anthology publication, and a reading at the George West Storyfest for short fiction on a chosen theme. This year's prompt was "Highway 90". The most recent deadline was August 1. Pete found this opportunity in our newsletter. He writes, "This is my first work of fiction to be accepted for publication. I wanted to drop you this brief note to let you know of my good fortune, and of the role that both of you, your staff, and Winning Writers played in making this success possible. I am deeply grateful to you for your hard work in putting out this website and the email updates."
Congratulations to Gary Beck. His novel Acts of Defiance was published in December by Wordcatcher Publishing. In this story, a boyhood friendship is tested when one of the men becomes a Communist revolutionary and fugitive, and the other joins the Marines to fight in Vietnam. Watch the book trailer here.
Congratulations to Dana Curtis. Her essay "The Happy Cripple Show" was shortlisted for the 2018 Cosmonauts Avenue Nonfiction Prize judged by Ocean Vuong. This is her first published prose piece; her three poetry collections include Wave Particle Duality (BlazeVOX, 2017).
Recent Publications
Winning Writers editor Jendi Reiter's novel Two Natures (Saddle Road Press, 2016) was featured in January on the book blog Snowflakes in a Blizzard.
Scott Winkler's essay "Stories and the Lives They Save" was published on the blog of Ruminate, a literary journal with an interest in spiritual topics.
Lorna Wood's poem "Etheree for Heather Heyer" was published in Poetry South, which nominated it for a Pushcart Prize. She kindly shares it with us here.
Yvonne Chism-Peace has several poetry publications to report for 2018. "Freedom of Choice" and "Star Harbor" were published in the Fall 2018 issue of Collateral. "Chestnut at 49th", "No Marker Yet", and "Backwards" were published in Voices, the online journal of Brain Mill Press, as a feature titled "One Catholic Girl: The Fifties". "Boll Weevil and Me" was published in The WAiF Project, Issue #2 (Fall 2018), whose theme was "Leaving". Her work also appeared in the anthologies Quiet Diamonds (The Orchard Street Press, 2018) and Bosque #8 (Bosque Press, 2018). More poems are forthcoming in spring 2019 in AMP, the online journal of Hofstra University; Foreign; and the Nassau Literary Review, a publication of Princeton University.
David Kherdian's poetry collection Awakening, illustrated by Nonny Hogrogian, was released in December and is available on Amazon. From the book blurb: "Awakening is about capturing the heart of those moments in our lives that impress our deepest feelings, with vivifying details that act as a mirror to stir our conscience."
R.T. Castleberry's poem "The Geography of Decline" was published in The Pedestal Magazine, Issue #83.
Published: January 7, 2019
