The Story of the Month is chosen from the Story of the Week winners announced from the past month. The finalists for September were:
Guess Who by Kymberli Roberson
The Talking Fingers of My Great Greek Grandfather by Bob Thurber
Summer Learning, 1975 by Jennifer L Freed
Assertive by Philip Zunzuncito Sequoia
Hector Heard God by Shark Trager
The winner of the September 2014 Story of the Month, and the $10 prize, is…
Summer Learning, 1975
Congratulations, Jennifer!
The story of the week for September 22 to 26 is Hector Heard God by Shark Trager.
It’s powerful to mix emotions in a story, when it’s done right, and in this piece there’s a great mixture of several emotions. Well done!
The story of the week for September 15 to 19 is Assertive by Philip Zunzuncito Sequoia.
The tone of this story is so different from what we generally see on the site. It earns a great reaction (or at least it did from me and my wife!). Well done, Philip!
The decision for story of the week was literally too close to call. That’s why I’m setting a potentially dangerous precedent by selecting two stories as story of the week for September 8 to 12! Those stories are The Talking Fingers of My Great Greek Grandfather by Bob Thurber and Summer Learning, 1975 by Jennifer L. Freed.
Great work on both of these, Bob and Jennifer!
The story of the week from September 1 to 5 is Guess Who by Kymberli Roberson.
This story makes a great transition from strangeness and tension into lightheartedness and then suddenly back into strangeness, with a bit of creepy factor thrown in. The emotional setup and payoff are really strong, and that’s why I selected it.
Congratulations, Kymberli!
The Story of the Month is chosen from the Story of the Week winners announced from the past month. The finalists for August were:
Through the Window by Alex Mascarenhas
Old Age by Catherine Mathews
There Goes Spot Again by Michael Coolen
First Impressions by Katya Duft
Burial At Sea by Jim Purdy
The winner of the August 2014 Story of the Month, and the $10 prize, is…
Through the Window
Congratulations, Alex!
The story of the week from August 25 to 29 is Burial At Sea by Jim Purdy.
There was a lot of conversation about this story in the comments. It’s a touching tribute to a fallen friend, told in a matter-of-fact style, and despite its lack of flowery emotion it clearly resonated with the readers who have been rating it so highly. Thank you for contributing this story, Jim.
The story has now been removed from the site, at the author’s request.
The story of the week from August 18 to 22 is First Impressions by Katya Duft.
There’s a great transition between emotions in this story, allowing the reader to feel like they’ve gone on a journey with the character. Well done, Katya!
The story of the week from August 11 to 15 is There Goes Spot Again by Michael Coolen.
I love how this story sets up for a pretty simple comedic twist, but then over-delivers on the punchline. Well done, Michael!
Apologies for the delay on announcing last week’s winning story. I’ve been away on holidays.
The story of the week from August 4 to 8 is Old Age by Catherine Mathews.
As the commenters have pointed out, there’s great emotion in this piece, and that’s why it earned the selection.