Deliberations Have Been Made! Winners Have Been Chosen!

This year’s contest was particularly competitive and the decisions were, truly, a challenge, particularly in narrowing the field. Our first shortlist had about 25 pieces so creating a list of 10 required the removal of some vital organs.

Our winner this year is Tyler Gobble whose story, “To Toss Is To Life,” really impressed all of us who read the work.

About the winning story, Michael Martone said, “I liked how the story meandered, how it sortied randomly on all levels. It made me guess the next word, sentence, spot on the page. It was trashed and trashy and about trash–the leading edge of the junk phenomenon as Donald Barthelme would say–about the trajectory of radio-active half lives decaying before our eyes.”

In second place, Martone chose Erin Fitzgerald’s “No One Cares About Your Problems,” and in third place, “A List of My Shortcomings,” by Naomi Day.

Runners Up:

The Showrunner, Joshua Dalton
The Tragedy of Tragic Men, Tania Hershman
What Hangs Up, Must Come Down, Samantha LaBlue
Life on the Dead Tree, Jennifer Pieroni
The Sex of the Stars, Audra Puchalski
The Mothers, Amy Schleunes
Epitaphs 17 & 33, Matthew Vollmer

Congratulations to all our winners and runners up!

We’ll be having a new contest next year with a new judge so stay tuned and thanks to everyone who entered for making this such a great year for our 1,001 Awesome Words Contest.