Category Archives: News

News about the site.

STORY OF THE MONTH: October 2019

News

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

The finalists for October were:

Mother Always Asked Uncle Bart to Babysit by C. Christine Fair
No Returns, Exchanges, or Substitutions by Maria Cargille
The Macy’s Mummy by Graham Robert Scott
Like a Crow by Louella Lester
Grocery Run by Mariya Khan

The winner of the October 2019 Story of the Month, and the $10 prize, is…

Mother Always Asked Uncle Bart to Babysit

As several commenters pointed out, praising or “liking” this story seems wrong somehow, but that’s really the point: it makes us uncomfortable, it even hurts us, but we can’t ignore it. If we do, look at the consequences.

What I appreciate most about this piece is its double-edged sword. There is condemnation of Uncle Art and of the mother: How could you do this? How could you let this happen? And there is also pain spilling out from the narrator to wound those around her: beg me for absolution. The consequences ripple out.

Christine, thank you for sharing this.

STORY OF THE MONTH: September 2019

News

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

The finalists for September were:

Upside-Down by Hadley Leggett
Roman Holiday by Maura Yzmore
Decay by Lisa Alletson
Immortal Moments by Seth Pilevsky
Create by Isla Elizabeth
Super, Dad by Robert Hoekman

The winner of the September 2019 Story of the Month, and the $10 prize, is…

Create

I can’t say for certain, but I think Isla is the youngest ever winner of a 50WS Story of the Month award! The theme of her story will resonate pretty effectively with this site’s audience, since I know many of you are writers (and submitters!) yourselves. But even leaving the wise choice of topic aside, Isla’s story makes great use of language and imagery, doing exactly what the story describes and creating a world for the reader to fall into. Bravo, Isla!