Recent Reading - 50 Great Short Stories

As a student of the craft, it pays to see what the legends of the past have done. Originally published in 1952, 50 Great short stories includes literary heavyweights like Hemingway, Poe, Salinger, Joyce, O. Henry and more.

I've highlighted my favorite stories from the bunch and why I think they were selected to be a part of this anthology.

Inside Judge's Minds- Reports from the Bridport Prize

The Bridport Prize is huge in the UK.  It has competitions for poetry, short fiction, and flash fiction.  They give out a number of prizes, and list biographies of all writers that they deem as highly commended.  The Bridport Prize has the other benefit of disclosing the judges names and offering their reports after the competition.  Below are links to the reports for various categories with some selected quotes.

Gracie Award Writing Contest Entry

The result are in for the Black Lilac Kitty Gracie Award Contest.

In this contest, we had to writea short story (2,000 to 7,000) words that included:

• a cat
• a Rottweiler that could not be mean
• the phrase "It was a dark and stormy night

They did not publish any of the winning stories, but they did list the winners names. On the blog post, there are a few more comments about what appealed to the judge about each story.

Meanwhile, my entry is below, it is titled "Guardian". Enjoy

Words From Winners - Michael Logan Q&A

I previously highlighted Michael Logan in my first words from winners post.  Here's a little more insight about how contests have worked in his career.

Words From Winners - Michael Logan Winner of Terry Pratchett First Novel Award

Michael Logan's (blog, website) book Apocalypse Cow has earned the Terry Pratchett First Novel Award.

The website multi-story has posted his extensive diary (in 6 parts) and I recommend that you check it out.

However, if you want some quick hits, here are some interesting pieces that I was able to pull.