2008 Faulkner-Wisdom Winners!

The Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society, Inc. is pleased to announce the 2008 winners of the William Faulkner – William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition. Winners will be the guests of the Faulkner Society for Words & Music, A Literary Feast in New Orleans.  Winners should plan to arrive on Friday, November 21 to receive awards at Faulkner and Fitzgerald for All! Saturday, November 22. Winners will be honored guests at a cocktail party, also honoring Ted Turner, our ALIHOT honoree for 2008, immediately preceding the gala.  The Society pays air fare or mileage for winners and provides hotel accommodations. Runners-up and Finalists receive a pass for discussion events and are our guests for the cocktail party and Faulkner and Fitzgerald for All! 

Michael Murphy Michael Murphy has been in book publishing since 1981. His first 13 years were with Random House, where he was a Vice President. Later, he ran William Morrow as their Publisher up to the acquisition by HarperCollins. As a literary agent his first sale was My New Orleans by Rosemary James. In September, 2007, he formed his own agency, Max & Co. A Literary Agency & Social Club. Three of his authors will be attending this year's Words & Music. Jason Peter, whose memoir, Hero of the Underground, was a New York Times best seller. Tony O'Neill's new novel, Down and Out on Murder Mile, was published in November by HarperCollins. Esquire Magazine tabbed O'Neill the IT writer of the current decade, along side Jack Keruoac, Hunter Thompson, and Brett Eason Ellis for prior decades. And New Orleans resident, Barb Johnson. She was Glimmer Train's Best New Voice 2007. Her short story collection will be published in 2009.

WINNER: Higher Ground by James Nolan of New Orleans, LA: James Nolan is a widely published poet, fiction writer, essayist, and translator. Perpetual Care, a collection of his short stories, won the 2007 Jefferson Press Prize, and is forthcoming in the spring of 2008 from Jefferson Press. His collections of poetry are Why I Live in the Forest and What Moves Is Not the Wind, both from Wesleyan University Press. A regular contributor to Boulevard, his fiction, poems, and essays have appeared in The Southern Review, The Georgia Review, Poetry, Shenandoah, Utne Reader, The North American Review, New Orleans Noir and The Washington Post. He has translated Pablo Neruda's Stones of the Sky (Copper Canyon Press) and Longing: Selected Poems of Jaime Gil de Biedma. He is the author of Poet-Chief (a study of the Native American poetics of Whitman and Neruda). His poetry and prose have been widely translated, and a collection of his essays, Fumadores en manos de un dios enfurecido, has come out in Spain. He has been the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts grant and two Fulbright Fellowships to Spain, and has taught literature and creative writing at universities in San Francisco, Florida, Barcelona, Madrid, and Beijing. Recently he was Writer-in-Residence at Tulane and Loyola Universities in his native New Orleans, where he now directs the Loyola Writing Institute.

NOVEL RUNNER-UP
Various States of Undress, Roz Unruh, Hockessin, DE: Earlier drafts of Various States of Undress have placed as finalist for the Breadloaf Bakeless Prize and the Bellwether Prize.  She has received three Delaware State Arts Council fellowships, including the Master fellowship for $10,000, as well as a Barbara Deming Memorial Award for feminist writing.  Best-selling novelist, Rita Ciresi, recently judged a competition for the novel was the winner and said, "A knock-out manuscript needs to have memorable characters, a strong conflict and sharp dialogue. In my opinion, Ms. Unruh's work displayed all three of these."

NOVEL FINALISTS
Black Orchid, William S. “Bill” Culver, Metairie, LA
My Bright Midnight, Josh Russell, Newnan, GA
Revenge is Not Always Sweet, Linda Elick, Columbus, OH
Semper Fee, Frank Porter, Cambridge
Zinzi, Phyllis MacBryde, New York, NY:

NOVEL ALMOST FINALISTS
City Park Murder, Ken Mask, New Orleans, LA
Door Number Two, Rachel Cantor, Philadelphia, PA
Hang Me The Moon, Kade Bullard Adams, Charleston, SC
Show Up, Look Good, Mark Wisniewski, Lake Peekskill, NY
The Disappearances of Harrison, Caleb Powell, Seattle, WA
Lawless Elements, Greg Bascom, Miami, FL
Sick in the Head, Mark Spitzer, Conway, AK
The Lonely Affair of Jonathan Brady, Robert Raymer, Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysa
The Pride and the Sorrow, Matt Fullerty, Washington, DC
The Shrine Artist, Robin Black,
When You Loved Me, Emily Meier, St. Paul, MN

NOVEL SEMI-FINALISTS
418 Benjamin Street, Rick J. Barrett, Waterford, MI
Able, N. C., David A. Wright, Columbia, SC
Agoraphobe, Charlie Elliott, Lafayette, LA
A Fictional Life, C. A. Willis, Seattle, WA
Alligator Dreams, Ren Easterling Agena, Covington, LA
And He Swings, Paul Tolliver Brown, Columbia, SC
Aristotle's Wall, Matthew Minson, MD, Arlington, VA
Because Quicksand Is What It Is, Nicole Walker
Checkpoint, Timothy Jay Smith, Paris, France
Cradle and All, Frank Vick, Atglen, PA
Creole Cottage on Demeter, Diane Daniels Manning, Houston, TX
Crescent City Connections, Darlene Olivo, Concord, NH
Crossing Borders, Thomas Sabino, Savannah, GA
Displaced Persons, Jonathan H. Rosen, Bristol, CT
Dominion, Richard Perry, Englewood, NJ
Dragon Dawn, Deborah O'Neill Cordes, Issaquah, WA
Fall Line, Joe Samuel Starnes, Philadelphia, PA
Fire Hollow, Melissa Tantaquidgeon Zobel, Old Mystic, CT
Floaters, Louis E. Catron, Williamsburg, VA
Green Gospel, L. C. Fiore, Chicago, IL
In the Silence of this Room, Diane Smith, Mendota Heights, MN
Lazarus, Jason Akley, New Athens, IL
Lilac, Joseph Pagano, Simpsonville, SC
Love's Wilderness, Enid Harlow, New York, NY
Love Thy Neighbor, Mark Gilleo, Arlington, VA
Macaroni Jewels, Randy Susan Meyers, Boston, MA
Margaret's Moon, Martha Davis, Houston, TX
Marx, TX, David Martin Anderson, Boerne, TX
Martha Unraveled, Peggy O'Neal, Nashville, TN
Me and You, Billy, Janice Wiley Dorn, Pell City, AL
Miles Christi, Tim Osner, Melvin Village, NH
Pirated Copy, Dana Sheehand, Aurora, CO
Silverheels, Ken Kuykendall, Draper, UT
Surviving Clown Therapy, Wendy Langford, Bristow, VA
That North Carolina Feeling, Catherine King, Carrboro, NC
The Blue Room, Serena Baugh Vinci, Guntersville, AL
The Jelly Maker, Sheila Mulligan Koster, Glendale, CA
The Little Ice Maiden, Deborah Sartori Firmin, Ferriday, LA
The Look Thief, Elizabeth Harris, Austin, TX
The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Nancy Brock, Columbia, SC
Trench, Craig Broadhurst, Columbia, SC
With One Blind Eye, Mark Havlik, Huntersville, NC

NOVELLA - Judged By: Julia Glass

Julia Glass won the National Book Award for Three Junes, her debut work of fiction. Three Junes is a novel composed of three linked novella, one of which, Collies, won the Faulkner Society's gold medal for Best Novella in 2000. Ms. Glass expanded the concept to create Three Junes. Her second novel, The Whole World Over, was highly praised by critics. She now has published an intimate and personal work of fiction about the intertwined lives of two sisters in her new book, I See You Everywhere, an October, 2008 release from Pantheon Books. The story revolves around Louisa, the older sister, the conscientious student, the one who desires a successful and stable marriage and career, and Clement, the archetypal youngest, the sister who is beautiful, charismatic, daring, and irresistible to men. Alternating between the sisters' voices, I See You Everywhere unfolds over 25 years. We meet the sisters in their twenties in 1980 and journey with them until 2005. Louisa resents that Clement has always been the favorite, while Clement feels tremendous pressure to be the brilliant one always performing and entertaining. Their complex bond, Louisa describes as "like a double helix, two souls coiling around a common axis, joined yet never touching." With sensual detail, lyrical pacing, and riveting characterization, I See You Everywhere is a candid portrait of two women, one which reveals the very nature of sisterhood.

THE WINNER
Browns Backers by Thomas Earl Allen

NOVELLA RUNNER-UP
My Turkish Professor by Julie Rold of Boston, MA: Julie Rold is a fiction writer and playwright whose work has appeared in the annual Best New Voices collection, The Missouri Review, The Boston Book Review, Alexandria and has also been named for a Pushcart Prize.  Her plays have been produced at The Boston Center for the Arts, the Northeast Theatre of Pennsylvania, and The Boston Playwright’s Theatre.  She has won the Artist Grant in both drama and fiction from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, as well as in fiction from the St. Botolph Club Foundation.  A native of Kentucky, she is a graduate of the Boston University Creative Writing Program and is currently Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing at Berklee College of Music in Boston. 

NOVELLA HONORABLE MENTION, EQUAL RANK:
Lessons in Sophistication by Christiane Gannon, Baltimore, MD
Quiet Desperation by Rodney A. Neslestuen
Siren of the Internet by Trina Carter, Bethesda, MD

NOVELLA FINALISTS
Jody’s Run, Perry Glasser, Haverhill,  MA
The Railroad Man, Nancy Brock, Columbia, SC
The Floating Empire of Dancing Bears, William Jackson, Chicago,IL
Under the Waves, Peter Capalbo, East Greenwich, RI
McAngel, Jim Pahz, Mount Pleasant, MI

NOVELLA SEMI-FINALISTS
A Mindful Rendition, Jill Widner, Yakima, WA
A Pleasant Vertigo, Egidio Coccimiglio, New York, NY
A Thousand Stings, Cary Holladay, Memphis, TN
Downsized Out of My Dog House, Debra J. White, Tempe, AZ
Fresh Orange, Patricia Chao, New York, NY
Ready to Fly, Patricia Grace King, Chicago, IL
Sandy and Wayne, Steve Yates, Flowood, MS 39232
Swastika Under Northern Light, Inger Kretsinger, Charlottesville, VA
TBM, Paul Hanninen, Tuscaloosa, AL
Terra, Nicholas Stokes, Tacoma, WA
The Blue Stoop, Zack O'Neill, Redondo Beach, CA
The Deceptive Smiles of Bredmeyer Deed, Susan Scutti, New York, NY
The Dreams of Gabriel LeNoir, Abe de la Houssaye, Washington, DC
The Garden, Adam Falik, New Orleans, LA
The Inundated, Hillary Plum, Holyoke, MA
The Jimmy Carter Problem, Susan Daniels,
The Journal of Darien Dexter Duff, an Emancipated Slave (Louisiana, 1865), Karen McWilliams, Naples, FL
The Path from the Shadows, Courtney Crawford, Sanford, FL
Tough Guys Always Make Me Cry, Sandra D. Danderson, APO

NOVEL IN PROGRESS - Judged By: Deborah Grosvenor

Deborah Grosvenor has worked in book publishing for more than 20 years as an editor and literary agent. During her career, she has edited or represented hundreds of fiction and nonfiction books in the areas of history, biography, politics, current affairs, memoir, the environment, the military, the South, and science, among others. Her best-known acquisition as an editor was a first novel, The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy. Deborah also signed up bestselling author Homer Hickham's first work, Torpedo Junction, and helped launch bestselling author's Stephen Coonts's first novel, Flight of the Intruder. After running her Grosvenor Literary Agency for ten years, Deborah merged her company last October with the Kneerim and Williams Agency. She and her colleagues represent a range of authors, from New York Times best-sellers to Pulitzer prize winners, among them Brad Meltzer, James Fenton, Stephen Greenblatt, Joseph Ellis, Christopher Hitchens, Caroline Elkins, Juan Cole, Dr. Susan Love, E.O. Wilson, Robert Pinsky, Howard Gardner, Geoffrey Wheatcroft, Edward M. Hallowell, Graham Allison, Elizabeth Pryor, Henry Allen, Tom Oliphant, Eleanor Clift, Curtis Wilkie, Aaron Miller, and Mort Kondracke.

THE WINNER
After Paradise, Tena L. Russ, Riverwoods, IL: After Paradise is Tena Russ' first novel.  Following her studies at Northwestern University and the American Academy of Art, she worked as a portrait artist and a commercial actress, then turned to writing.  Her published work includes a series of features for a Chicago area newspaper.  She has served as Co-President of The Writers, a juried critique group, and is currently working on her second novel. Tena lives in a renovated house in the woods with her incumbent husband.  She is the evil stepmother of four adult children, the proud mother of two grown sons, and the humble servant to a pair of German shepherd dogs.  She volunteers with one of the dogs in a literacy program for young children. 

NOVEL-IN-PROGRESS 1ST RUNNER-UP
The Problem of Other Minds, Madeline Hansen Brown, Shippenburg, PA

NOVEL-IN-PROGRESS 2ND RUNNER-UP
Sun, David Armand, Hammond, LA: David Armand lives in Hammond, Louisiana, with his beautiful wife, Lucy, their daughter, Lily, and their son, Levi. David teaches Freshman Composition and American Literature at Southeastern Louisiana University, where he also serves as Managing Editor for the university's nationally-recognized literary journal, Louisiana Literature.

NOVEL-IN-PROGRESS FINALISTS
Chasing Perfection, Jeremy J. Banks, New Orleans, LA
Fair is Fair, Martha L. Burns, La Luz, NM
Gloria’s World, Melissa J. Hintz, Shaker Heights, OH
Growing Watermelons, Becky Browder, Jacksonville, AL
How to Unwedge, Penelope Dane, Baton Rouge, LA
Laying Bare the Bones, Brenda McClain, Edisto Island, SC: The original seed for Laying Bare the Bones came many years ago when a neighbor told Brenda a secret he'd been carrying around for 54 years, one he'd promised his mother as a six-year-old boy he'd never tell.  But tell he did, and Brenda pledges to honor that confession and even throw in some healing.  She’s a two-time winner of the South Carolina Fiction Project, both for 2007 and 2003, and also was awarded the 2005 Fiction Fellowship by the South Carolina Arts Commission.  Excerpts from the novel have appeared in The Fourth River and Moonshine Review.  She’s recently moved to outside Nashville.
Lead Soul, M. Eileen Cronin, Ph.D., Arlington, VA
Life During the Plague Years, Missy Wilkinson, Baton Rouge, LA: Missy Wilkinson teaches composition at Louisiana State University, where she also works halfheartedly on a PhD in comparative literature and wholeheartedly on her novel.  Her fiction has received the John Ed Bradley prize, a Pushcart nomination, and has appeared in Prose Ax and Red Wheelbarrow.  A proud Louisiana native, she received her MFA in fiction from the University of New Orleans.
Losing Moses, Jennifer Vezer, Jacksonville, FL
No Extraordinary Means, Shari Jean Stauch, Summerville, SC: Shari Stauch is also a finalist in this year's Essay competition, with an Honorable Mention distinction. Her novel, Chicks With Sticks, was awarded 1st Runner-Up in the 2007 Novel in Progress category. Stauch is the owner of Sports Publications Ltd., publishers of Pool & Billiard Magazine, celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. She is a former professional pool player, inducted into the Women's Pro Billiard Tour Hall of Fame in June, 2008.
Orlando Tales, Joseph Conlin , Fairfield, CT
Save Me, Geoff Schutt, Pittsburgh, PA
The Coffee Diary, Caroline Kellems, Guatemala City, Guatemala
The Evolution of Grace, Leslie Haynsworth, Columbia, SC
The Mother of Dust, Kevin Phillips, Bel Air, MD
The Spirit of Orla Adair, Colleen M. Story, Idaho Falls, ID
The Verge of Splinter, Art Blount, Woodside, NY

NOVEL IN PROGRESS SEMI-FINALISTS
24/7, Ellen J. Greenfield, Brooklyn, NY
A Confusion of the Senses, Stephen Thomas Roberts, Lagrangeville, NY
A Hundred Shades of Green, Rachel Weaver, Louisville, CO
A Second Breath, Valerie Winn, Gautier, MS
Baptism of a Boy, Ron Zuchora, Minneapolis, MN
Birth of the Force, David J. Bindewald, Jr.
Blue Steel Crucifix, S. R. Perricone, Harahan, LA
Crescent Lane, Katrine Tie Gray, El Sobrante, CA
Death of a Foreign Student, Anita Savage
Evanthia's Legs, Henriette Lazaridis Power
False Cape, Katherine Jackson, Virginia Beach, VA
Gloria's World, Melissa J. Hintz, Shaker Heights, OH
Goodfriend, Frederick Mead, New Orleans, LA
Harper's Road, Melody Lark Annis, Savannah, GA
How to Make Moonshine, Jana Cromartie Sasser, Charleston, SC
Just Another Termination, Linda Thorne, Hermitage, TN
Keep Private Thoughts, J. Mario Diaz, Lawrenceville, GA
Rustlers, Jeremy J. Banks, New Orleans, LA
Someone Else's War, Patricia Grace King, Chicago, IL
The Beekeeper's Son, Stephanie Nash, Creve Coeur, MO
The Inner Music, Mal King, Santa Paula, CA
The Girl in the Bathtub, Robert Raymer, Sarawak, Malaysia
The Last Moment in Middle America, Julie Rold, Boston, MA
The Missing Links, Penelope Dane, Baton Rouge, LA
The Mother of Dust, Kevin Phillips, Bel Air, MD
The Smell of Sulphur, Jill Widner, Yakima, WA
True American, Brenda L. Horrigan, Falmouth, MA
Unaccustomed Wine, Sheila Mulligan Koster, Glendale, CA
Victorio's Twilight, Martha L. Burns, La Luz, NM

SHORT STORY - Judged By: Stewart O'Nan

Stewart O'Nan was born and raised in Pittsburgh, trained as an aerospace engineer in Boston, and worked as a structural test engineer on Long Island. His dozen novels include the award-winning Snow Angels, A Prayer for the Dying, The Good Wife, and Last Night at the Lobster. He's also the author of New England nonfiction favorites The Circus Fire and, with Stephen King, Faithful, the story of the 2004 Boston Red Sox. He lives with his wife in Connecticut.

THE WINNER
Flip Lady (1986) by Ladee Hubbard of New Orleans, LA: Ladee Hubbard lives in New Orleans with her husband, Christopher Dunn, and two children, Isa and Joaquin. She grew up in St. Thomas, USVI and St. Petersburg FL. She received a BA in English from Princeton University and a PhD in Folklore and Mythology from the University of California, Los Angeles. A former visiting professor in the African and African Diaspora Studies program at Tulane University, her fiction has been published in Sleeping Fish and is forthcoming in GUD. The 2009 Rhino poetry anthology will feature her poem  Colossus. Last year she was a finalist for the Glimmer Train Short Story Award for New Writers.

SHORT STORY RUNNERS-UP, EQUAL RANK:
Brother Spirit by Julie Chagi of Scotts Valley, CA
Dogs in Guatemala by Patricia Grace King of Chicago, IL
Homunculus by William H. Coles, Chapel Hill, NC
 
SHORT STORY FINALISTS
A Body Full of Person, Michael Conn, Tucson, AZ
A Second Kiss, Milana Marsenich, Polson, MT
Billie and Me, Becky Browder, Jacksonville, AL
 Cherries in the Snow, Valerie Walker, New Orleans, LA
Cleaning Up, Marley KD, Sherman Oaks, CA
How Aaron Spelling Kept Me Out of Harvard, Matthew Minson, MD, Arlington, VA
Keep Our Country Aids Free, Caleb Powell, Seattle, WA
LaRue Apartments, Seth Satterlee, Metairie, LA
Pie Birds, Janet Slike, Dublin, OH
Poker Night, Jane Stubbs, New Orleans, LA
The Gift That Cost Everything, Mal King, Santa Paula, CA
The Prince of Pedro, John Davey, Marysville, CA
The Thirteen Nudes of Ernest Goings, William H. Coles, Chapel Hill, NC
The Ugly Mare, Roland Cheek, Columbia Falls, MT

SHORT STORY SEMI-FINALISTS
Bent Necessity, Marilyn Moriarty, Roanoke, VA
Descant, Mary Ann O'Gorman, Ocean Springs, MS
Fearless Fosdick Rides Again, Kirk Curnutt, Montgomery, AL
Flamingo Fling, Maureen A. Sherbondy, Raleigh, NC
Love on the Rocks, John Yarrow, Erasmuskloof, Pretoria, South Africa
Proof of Loss, Alex S. Myers,
Revelations, Billy O'Callaghan, Douglas, County Cork, Ireland
Revolve, C. T. Gilbert, Denver, CO
Smilin' Through,
Storm King, Timothy Crandle, San Francisco, CA
Tessa, Cynthia Tanner, Biloxi, MS
Tinkering with Chemistry, Christopher Vanier, Paris, France
The Ivory Life, Pat Gallant, New York, NY
The Prop Master, Patricia Brieschke, Waccabuc, NY
The Right Mistake, Reggie J. PochÚ, Jefferson, LA

ESSAY - Judged By: Rosemary Daniell

Rosemary Daniell's book Secrets of the Zona Rosa: How Writing (and Sisterhood) Can Change Women's Lives, was published by Henry Holt and Company, 2006 to great acclaim. Known as one of the best writing coaches in the country, Rosemary is the founder of Zona Rosa, the series of creative writing workshops she has led for 25 years in Savannah, Atlanta, Charleston, and other cities (including New Orleans), as well as in Europe. Her first book on Zona Rosa, The Woman Who Spilled Words All Over Herself: Writing and Living the Zona Rosa Way, was published by Faber & Faber in 1997. Daniell's revolutionary memoir, Fatal Flowers: On Sin, Sex and Suicide in the Deep South (Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1980; Henry Holt & Company, 1989; Hill Street Press, 1999) won the 1999 Palimpsest Prize for a most-requested out-of-print book, and was re-issued that year. Along with her second memoir, Sleeping with Soldiers (Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1984), Fatal Flowers was a forerunner of the current memoir trend. She is the author of four other books of poetry and prose; Among her many awards are two N.E.A. Fellowships in creative writing, one in in poetry, another in fiction.

THE WINNER
The Best Cemetery in the South in Which to Kiss a Woman by Kirk Curnutt of Montgomery, AL: Kirk Curnutt is professor and chair of English at Troy University in Montgomery, AL, the city in which F. Scott Fitzgerald first met Zelda Sayre in July 1918. A passionate devotee of all things Fitzgerald, he is vice-president of the F. Scott Fitzgerald Society, managing editor of its annual Fitzgerald Review, and a board member of the Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum in Montgomery. In addition to publishing several critical studies of American fiction—including the Cambridge Introduction to F. Scott Fitzgerald (2007)—he has authored a novel, Breathing Out the Ghost, which the Indiana Center for the Book recently named Best Fiction in this year’s Best Books of Indiana Awards. His other works include Coffee with Hemingway (2007), an entry in Duncan Baird’s series of imaginary conversations with great historical figures prominently featured in Barnes & Noble cafes across the country, and a story collection, Baby, Let’s Make a Baby (2003). 

ESSAY 1ST RUNNER-UP
Writing in Post-Katrina New Orleans: Disaster as a Catalyst for Artistic Endeavor by Jane Stubbs of New Orleans, LA: : Jane Stubbs is primarily a writer of fiction, but she (like most MFA students) is a genre-traitor and has branched out into nonfiction, poetry, and screenwriting. She received her BA (Anthropology and English) and MA (English) from the University of New Orleans, and is pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing from Louisiana State. She presented her essay, "Writing in Post-Katrina New Orleans: Disaster as a Catalyst for Artistic Endeavors" at this year's Association of Writers and Writing Programs conference in New York. Her short story, "Poker Night," won the David Madden Fiction award at LSU and was a finalist in the William Saroyan Centennial Prize for Fiction.  She has since completed a novella featuring the characters in that story. Her current writing projects include a memoir focusing on her work in the sex industry, and a much-neglected MFA thesis.

ESSAY 2ND RUNNER-UP
Cowboy Lit by Roland Cheek, Columbia Falls, MT
 .
ESSAY HONORABLE MENTIONS
An Accidental Garden, Shari Jean Stauch, Summerville, SC
Eighteen, Seven and S-21, Caleb Powell, Seattle, WA
Lee and the Poison Lobster, Pat Gallant, New York, NY
Mysteries of an Amiable Child, Jacob Appel, New York, NY

OTHER ESSAY FINALISTS
2008, Dawn Ruth, Jefferson, LA
Calliope, Katheryn Krotzer Laborde, Metairie, LA
The Five Second Rule, David J. Binewald, New Orleans, LA
Walk This Way, Mayer Martin Baker, Baltimore, MD
Yin Dào, Caleb Powell, Seattle, WA

ESSAY SEMI-FINALISTS
British Balls, Barbara Donnelly Lane, Portishead, United Kingdom
But This is How It's Done, Honey, on a Country Music Bus, Joyce Blalock, Nashville, TN
Charting a Course, Nancy A. DaFoe, Homer, NY
Connect-a-Mundo?, Alan Huard, New Orleans, LA
Initials: A Family History in Sketches, Caleb Powell, Seattle, WA
In the Distance, Joyce Miller, Cincinnati, OH
"It is only by seeing (wo)men in their own homesî: Assessing Masculine Worth by Touring Men's Property in Jane Austin's Pride and Predjuice and Emma, Katherine Marie Dufosse, Pennington, NJ
On a Wing and a Prayer, Pat Gallant, New York, NY
Requiem, Pepper Caruso, Old Jefferson, LA
Snapshots from the Window Seat, Jane Neathery Cutler, Minneapolis, MN
Suspect: a Very Disagreeable Mirror, Karel Sloane-Boekbinder
The Burial, Joyce Blaylock, Nashville, TN
The Duplicity of Mirrors, Garry Wallace, Powell, WY
The Lytle Place, Joyce Blalock, Nashville, TN

POETRY - Judged By: Andrea Young

Andy Young is the co-editor of Meena and an instructor in the Creative Writing Department at New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, Riverfront. An interview she conducted was recently featured in McSweeney's Voices of the Storm and her poems, essays and translations have recently appeared or are forthcoming in Third Coast, Electronic Lebanon, Callaloo, Margie, Southern Quarterly, Mexico's Forum, Lebanon's Nawafez, Dublin's The Stinging Fly, the anthology We Begin Here (Interlink Books), and the Norton anthology Contemporary Voices of the Eastern World and on buses in Santa Fe, NM. Her chapbook All Fires the Fire was published in 2003 in a limited, hand-made edition by Faulkner House Books. She was a 2000 Louisiana Division of the Arts Fellow, a 2005 Surdna Artist-Teacher Fellow, a recent writer-in-residence at the Santa Fe Arts Institute and the Vermont Studio Center and an invited guest to the 2007 Nicaragua International Poetry Festival. She was recently named a finalist in Margie's Strong Medicine Award.

THE WINNER
Amsterdam by Debbie Jo Blank of Tucson, AZ: Debby Jo Blank, M.D. retired early from her career working in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries in order to write full-time. She is an MFA candidate in the low-residency program in Creative Writing at Leslie University. She completed her medical training at Tufts & Harvard and did a Sloan Fellowship at MIT. Most mornings she can be found on the tennis courts in Tucson, AZ, where she lives with her husband, Mark.

POETRY RUNNERS-UP, EQUAL RANK:
Foreleg Eardrums by Amy Trussell of Santa Rosa, CA
Sunday morning in Barcelona by Jane Stubbs of New Orleans, LA

OTHER POETRY FINALISTS
In the Well, David, 0J. Bindewald, Jr., New Orleans, LA
Let You, Jennifer Tamayo, Baton Rouge,  LA
NOT Thinking About Kate, David J. Bindewald, Jr., New Orleans, LA
Snow in Baghdad, Ned Balbo, Baltimore, MD
 The Chemist’s Advice, Jane Stubbs, New Orleans, LA
The Revenant, Stephen Thomas Roberts, Lagrangeville, NY

POETRY SEMI-FINALISTS
At the Pierre Hotel, Stephen Thomas Roberts, Lagrangeville, NY
Before World War III, Brandi Nash, Nashville, TN
Empathy, Dalton Bender, New Orleans, LA
Eyes of Katrinacolia, Manfred Pollard, New Orleans, LA
Fear Future, A Miltonic Invocation, Winshen Lieu, Naperville, IL
Lullaby, P.C. Bryant, Columbia, SC
No Hero, Penelope Dane, Baton Rouge, LA
Riff on Tobacco-and-Poontang Blues, Lynn Veach Sadler
Ripples in the Lake, Sharon T. DiLorenzo, Clifton Park, NY
Short October Light, Diane Smith, Mendota, MN
The Expression of Humanity, Andrew G. Cangemi, Jr., Northport, NY
The Garden, Evan Eyer, New Orleans, LA
The Sound of War, Bridgette Chabot, Wilmington, NC
Wit's End, Mary Katherine Williams, Paint Back, VA

SHORT STORY BY A HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT - Judged By: Michael Malone

Michael Malone, noted for his sharp humor, is author of the southern classic novel Handling Sin and three well received literary mysteries - Uncivil Seasons, Time's Witness, and First Lady - as well as numerous other novels and short stories. His stories have appeared in such national magazines as The New York Times, Harper's, Playboy, The Washington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Nation, Newsday, Psychology Today, Mademoiselle, and The Atlanta Constitution. He regular adapts novels for the screen and he is a long-running screenwriter for a famous daytime TV drama. He teaches screenwriting and fiction at Duke University. He owns an historic plantation in Hillsborough, NC, a small town that is the home of many famous southern authors.

Sponsoring Teacher: Brad Richard, Lusher Charter School: Brad Richard is chair of the creative writing program at Lusher Charter High School in New Orleans.  2002 Poetry Winner in the Poets & Writers, Inc., Writers Exchange competition, he has published one book of poems (Habitations, Portals Press, 2000) and a  limited edition chapbook (The Men in the Dark, Lowlands Press, 2004).  His poems have appeared in American Letters & Commentary, Bayou, Hunger Mountain Review, The Iowa Review, Literary Imagination, Prairie Schooner, The Massachusetts Review, Passages North, and other journals. Of special note, Brad's winner was also a finalist with a second story, as well as winner. 13 Lusher Charter School writers placed 16 pieces in this year's competition. Two were semifinalists in poetry category (Evan Eyer and Dalton Bender, who also both placed work in the high school short story category); the rest were in the high school short story, including the winner, a runner up, and one of the honorable mentions!

THE WINNER
How to Become the Brother of a Drug Addict by Tim Clayton of New Orleans, LA: Timothy Clayton graduated from Lusher Charter School in 2008.  “I am the almost always beloved son of Kerry Clayton and Paige Royer of New Orleans." Timothy was accepted into three colleges for enrollment for Fall, 2008, but he to take a year off before college.  He currently is in India, “exploring the spiritual landscape.” He plans to return to New Orleans in December for holiday visits with his parents and will then spend three months in Paris in the spring.  His top choice for college at this point is Vassar University. He has not yet determined a course of studies to pursue. While in high school, beyond writing his primary interest was football. Timothy was a starting defensive tackle his senior year, the only student in the Creative Writing Department on the football field. He also is interested in world religions, a major reason for his choice of India for his three-month Sabbatical. Timothy’s teacher and advisor at Lusher was Brad Richard.

H.S. SHORT STORY RUNNERS-UP, EQUAL RANK

Acarpous No More by Katie Trainor, Pearl River, LA
Family Heirlooms by Adam Genuse of Lusher Charter School, New Orleans, LA

H.S. SHORT STORY HONORABLE MENTIONS
Felix and Pepe (or the Trench Messenger) by Daniel Hoppes, River Ridge, LA
The Changed Dead  by G. Maris Jones, New Orleans, LA

H.S. SHORT STORY FINALISTS
2194, Joe Sullivan, Manhasset, New York
Anything Worth Remembering, Monique Thomas, New Orleans, LA
Cherries in the Tree, Katheryn Connell, Shrewsbury, MA
Chinese New Year, Joe Legaux, New Orleans, LA
December 25, 1907, Caroline Winkler, Bethesda, MD
Everything the Mind May Offer, Tim Clayton, New Orleans, LA
Four Fingers, Sana Shuja, Kenner, LA
Macchiato, Raphael Odell Shapiro, Sag Harbor, NY
Phillip and the Parrot, Chase Crowder, New Orleans, LA
Silver Watch, Amanda Sabala, Harvey, LA

H.S. SHORT STORY SEMI-FINALISTS
A Glimpse of Sunlight, Evan Eyer, New Orleans, LA
A Marvelous Adventure, Benjamin Sargent, West Des Moines, IA
Drown, Natasha Cox, New Orleans, LA
Felix and Pepe or Trench Messenger, Daniel Hoppes, River Ridge, LA
I am the Cockroach, Kayla Rodney, Terrytown, LA
Memory, Miles Ager, New Orleans, LA
Pools of Eye, Dalton Bender, New Orleans, LA
Raining in Autumn, Sean Bensinger, New Orleans, LA
The Giant Squid, Ben Long, New Orleans, LA
The Girl, The Man, and The Grey-Eyed Horse, Taylor Yarborough, New Orleans, LA
The Neighborhood, Elizabeth Lilly, New Orleans, LA
Wings, Brittney N. Lewis, Harvey, LA