The Story of the Month is chosen from the Story of the Week winners announced from the past month.

The finalists for January were:

A False Hope by L.D. Water
Home by Yash Seyedbagheri
A Country Walk by Ben Mimmack
Homecoming by Finn Burnett
Roxana by Karalyn Wayne
The Tragedy of P–k by C.M.F. Wright

The winner of the January 2021 Story of the Month, and the $10 prize, is…

Homecoming

Finn Burnett did a great job of setting off the cycle of hopelessness and hopefulness in the character’s life, with beautiful use of language.

The story of the week for February 8 to 12 is…

I Call My Mother by Jennifer Freed

The story of the week for February 1 to 5 is…

Impressing an Old Flame at our 25th High School reunion by Bob Thurber
and
First Laugh by Marc Littman

The winner of the 2020 Story of the Year, along with the $50 prize and enshrinement in the Hall of Fame, is:

Your Pills by Jennifer L. Freed

We were blessed by Jennifer’s contributions to the site this year. She won three Story of the Month awards in four months (a feat made that much more remarkable by Yash Seyedbagheri’s accomplishment of the same thing later in the year). Your Pills was her strongest piece, centred around the beautifully poetic and hopeful turn of phrase “You take the sky / into your body / with your morning tea”.

Honourable mentions go to Cracked Lives by Yash Seyedbagheri, Extra Time by David Holloway, and Beautiful Things by Jennifer L. Freed.

The story of the week for January 25 to 29 is…

Roxana by Karalyn Wayne

The story of the week for January 18 to 22 is…

Homecoming by Finnian Burnett

So many great stories passed through the site in the past year. Let’s take a look at the twelve finalists for the Story of the Year award!

Here are the 12 Story of the Month winners for 2020.

JANUARY: Why I can’t go home again by Bob Thurber
FEBRUARY: Your Pills by Jennifer L. Freed
MARCH: Holes by Alison Carroll
APRIL: Beautiful Things by Jennifer L. Freed
MAY: Our Good Luck by Jennifer L. Freed
JUNE: In Memoriam by Thad DeVassie
JULY: Cracked Lives by Yash Seyedbagheri
AUGUST: I Point at the Shadows in Lieu of What I Dread by Graham Robert Scott
SEPTEMBER: Inbox Emptiness by Yash Seyedbagheri
OCTOBER: Mourning Mama by Yash Seyedbagheri
NOVEMBER: Extra Time by David Holloway
DECEMBER: The Gift Exchange by Zoe J. Walker

The winner, as chosen by editor Tim Sevenhuysen, will be announced on Sunday, January 31!

The prize for the Story of the Year winner is:

• $50 (Canadian)
• Enshrinement in the 50WS Hall of Fame

Let everyone know your favourite story in the comments!

Throwback: In 2015, Bob Thurber won the Story of the Year award with his piece The Mapmaker’s Calligraphist Daughter. In 2016, Guy Preston took the prize with One Job Away From Retirement. The 2017 winner was Jennifer L. Freed, for Aunt Peg. In 2018, Constellations by Jonathan Kosik won the award. In 2019, Bob Thurber won his second Story of the Year award for The Summer of Sweet Mary (circa 1972). In 2020, Evan McMurry won the Story of the Year for After the Water.

The story of the week for January 11 to 15 is…

A Country Walk by Ben Mimmack

The Story of the Month is chosen from the Story of the Week winners announced from the past month.

The finalists for December were:

Playground by Claire Natale
A Temporary Interruption by Dick Narvett
A Chip Off the Old Block by Ben Mimmack
Consumed by Josie Cellone
The Gift Exchange by Zoe J. Walker

The winner of the December 2020 Story of the Month, and the $10 prize, is…

The Gift Exchange

I’m not sure whether I’ve chosen any holiday-themed stories for Story of the Month before, but this one is worth it! The idea of a “mythical” character being literally sustained by believers’ faith is pretty common, but the approach Zoe took to that idea, and the way she delivered it, warrants high praise.

The story of the week for January 4 to 8 is…

Home by Yash Seyedbagheri