The story of the week for March 9 to 13  is…

Winter’s Child by Casey Laine

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

The finalists for February were:

Next Day’s Receipt by Andrew C. Nosti
Your Pills by Jennifer L. Freed
Palindrome II by Pontius Paiva
Shelf-mates by Amanda Quinn
How Long Do You Wait? by Ursula Hoult

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

Your Pills

It’s been a while since we received new work from Jennifer, and she delivered a characteristically powerful, evocative, poetic piece.

Next Day’s Receipt and How Long Do You Wait? were both also excellent stories, easily capable of winning, but Jennifer managed to outdo them with her use of language and the message she delivered.

The story of the week for March 2 to 6 is…

Holes by Alison Carroll

The story of the week for February 24 to 28 is…

Wrong Room by Bec Lewis

The story of the week for February 17 to 21 is…

How Long Do You Wait? by Ursula Hoult

The story of the week for February 10 to 14 is…

Shelf-mates by Amanda Quinn
and
Palindrome II by Pontius Paiva

The story of the week for February 3 to 7 is…

Your Pills by Jennifer L. Freed

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

The finalists for January were:

Nature by Jon Fain
Why I can’t go home again by Bob Thurber
A Sense of Perspective by Andy Hedgecock
The Sheriff by Adam Sirovátka
Tree Fall by Lillian

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

Why I can’t go home again

The journey through this story brings us deep into darkness before making an almost casual turn into the light. The title is a microcosm of the story: sad and hopeless at first, but flipped upside-down into a joyful declaration once you’ve reached the final sentence. Bob Thurber continues to deliver month after month.

The story of the week for January 27 to 31 is…

Next Day’s Receipt by Andrew C. Nosti

The winner of the 2019 Story of the Year, along with the $50 prize and enshrinement in the Hall of Fame, is:

After the Water by Evan McMurry

I appreciate the timeliness, imagination, and emotional punch of Evan’s story. He delivered just as much in 50 words as many stories offer in 1,000 or 2,500 or more, always the mark of a great piece of microfiction.

Honourable mentions go to Balloonman by Melody Leming-Wilson and The View After the Climb by Bob Thurber. The candidates for the award this year were very strong, and I enjoyed reading back through them and remembering what a great year of fiction we had in 2019.