Zoetrope: All-Story: 'Plum Island' Wins First Prize!

Absolutely thrilled that my short story "Plum Island" has won first prize in the Twenty-Third Annual Zoetrope: All-Story Short Fiction Competition. The judge was the brilliant Tommy Orange, author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist There There. (If you haven't yet, run out and grab yourself and your loved ones a copy of this amazing novel.)

I'm deeply touched that Orange selected my work, and have spent much of today re-reading his comments, as posted on the competition website  https://www.zoetrope.com/contests/stories-2019/:

"This story ('Plum Island') was far and away my favorite. The balance and pacing were perfect. The sentences were surprising and inventive. The narrative was full and complex. The ending was brilliant. I could read a whole narrative of this character and setting." 

Side note, some of you may remember that last year, my story "My Mother is a Lunar Crater" won second prize in the Twenty-Second Annual Zoetrope: All-Story Competition. The judge was another writer I admire, Colum McCann. https://www.zoetrope.com/contests/stories-2018/

There is no greater honor for writers than to have writers we love see us, and be moved by us.

Thank you Tommy Orange, and thank you Zoetrope!