Who knew so much could happen in ten minutes?!?!? If you missed any of the stories, go check them out here. Finished? Great! Let's read what the judge had to say:
Four delicious stories you brought this week, each bursting
with alphabetization and generous doses of despair. Lethal doses, methinks.
Never trifle with a grammarian!
In "The Instigator," Lauren Greene brings us Quint,
a zoo, and my absolute favorite, Kunkletown. Despite its flashes of humor--like
the bear thief and "know-everything-itis," this story is a sad one of
a marriage's end and a husband's desperate but ultimately failed attempts to
prevent it. I really love how you keep tying together the physical events--the
bear, the sunrise, the map--as a reflection of reality, and in a heartbreaking
echo of Jessica's analogy habit. Some really good layering there, deftly tucked
into the narrative.
In Messages Left," Nancy Chenier stages a fantastic
countdown as her framework, beginning the story at the moment of apocalypse and
moving backward through time ten minutes. I loved the awkward parallel between
the boss' and boyfriend's messages, the armageddon movie and real life, and the
gorgeous, compelling frame of the opening lines ("My apartment building
trembles") with the ironic last ("How badly do I need a life
change?"). In many respects this is a story told in pairs, and it's
wonderful.
Alicia VanNoy Call brings us "A Perfect Spiral," a
noir tale of a man whose grisly discovery eventually saves him. The tension of
opposites in this story is just fantastic: death vs life, fantasy and dreams vs
gritty noir fiction, the electric-blue light of the opening vs the dark of the
end. I love, love, LOVE your last line, the way it rolls, the way it stops
short; it's so perfect. And kudos for some really crisp and amazing sensory
work, soggy cardboard and Hefty bags, muck in silvery hooves, rain tapping on
the poncho hood. I'm crazy about it all.
Michael Simko, no surprise, presents an ill-behaved
"Sweet Extinction." This massive fantasy mashup of elves ("Death
to the elves!"), orcs, orgres, fairies, goblins, AND, serving as the cherry
on top, Germans, pits brother against brother and pretty much everyone against
everyone else in a tale of political machinations. It's a hilarious romp of a
ride as the protagonist flails every which way he can. And mega props for not
just throwing in a z, but giving us Zed, Zee, and Zi, right alongside Uff da
and xiphoid. I was cackling out loud by the end.
Special Challenge Champion: Michael Simko. Because your words
were just awesome. As they always are. :)
Grand Champion: Alicia VanNoy Call. Your episodic structure
was spot-on for noir, as were the grimy details, the rain, the cop pair, the
bar, the body in the alley; but the underlying magical touches of the dead,
dream-speaking unicorn and the protagonist with an incurable disease
transformed the story into something else entirely. Some absolutely fantastic
storytelling.
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