Jill Birdsall’s short stories can be read in literary journals including: Alaska Quarterly Review, Ascent, Crazyhorse, Emerson Review, Gargoyle, Iowa Review, Kansas Quarterly Review, Northwest Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, Southern Humanities Review, and Story Quarterly. She earned an MFA degree in fiction from Columbia University’s Writing Division where she was editor of the program’s literary journal. She has also been the recipient of a NJ State Council on the Arts grant for fiction. “Salvage” first published in The Emerson Review.
2ND | “In Defense of the Body” by MICHAEL SHUM
Michael Shum is currently a PhD student in Creative Writing at the University of Tennessee, and his work has appeared or is forthcoming in Barrelhouse, Weave, The AWP Writer’s Chronicle, Defunct, and more. He was a finalist for the 2011 Annie Dillard Award in Creative Non-Fiction and his work has been nominated for Million Writers and Best of the Net awards.
3RD | “Hello My New Friend, I Hope” by BIRD MARATHE
Bird Marathe is an MFA candidate and an instructor of creative writing at the University of Colorado in Boulder.
HIGHLY COMMENDED
Chiara Barzini
Kate Hill Cantrill
Andres Carlstein
Sheldon Compton
Ruth Dandrea
John Domini
Teesha Noelle Murphy
Trevor Houser
Don Hucks
Caroline Lazar
Andrew McLinden
Natanya Pulley
Robert Vaughan
Philip Dean Walker
Lidia Yuknavitch
We want to thank the winners, finalists and all the submitters for sending us such wonderful stories. Thank you, especially, to Mr. Moody for his careful attention and judging. 2014 contest submissions are now open. guest-judged by Cris Mazza, winner of the PEN/Nelson Algren Award. We look forward to reading your work.
We are so pleased to announce that our guest-judge for the 2014 Gertrude Stein Award in Fiction is Cris Mazza, winner of the Pen/Nelson Algren Award for book length fiction. Cris is also a critically acclaimed editor of the FC2 anthology Chick-Litseries. On behalf of Ms. Mazza and all the editors at Eckleburg, we look forward to reading your fiction! We are reading and rereading throughout the year and encourage early entry.
A big thank you to all the writers who submitted fiction for the 2013 Gertrude Stein Award, judged by Rick Moody. We had a fantastic response! Many talented and gripping stories. Winners to be announced in April of this year.
The Gertrude Stein Award in Fiction | 2014
Awards:$1000 and publication in Eckleburg to first place winner; publication to second and third place winners; listing of titles and names for honorable mentions.
All stories in English no more than 8,000 words are eligible. No minimum word count. Stories published previously in print or online venues are eligible if published after January 1, 2011. Stories can be submitted by authors, editors, publishers, and agents. Simultaneous and multiple submissions allowed. Each individual story must be submitted separately, with separate payment regardless of word count. Eckleburg editors, staff, interns and current students of The Johns Hopkins University are not eligible for entry.
Manuscript
Stories must be submitted online and in manuscript form (please don’t upload entire anthologies or collections), double-spaced, Times New Roman, one-inch margins. Must be in English. Experimental to mainstream with punch aesthetics welcome. Multimedia (visual that includes text) welcome. No film or audio.
Publication
Award-winning manuscripts will be published by The Doctor T. J. Eckleburg Review. Finalists and Honorable Mentions will be listed with titles and author names. By submitting, submitters verify copyright holding and give Eckleburg rights to publish, republish and use the winning works in promotional efforts and anthology printing both print and online.
Submission
No application forms are necessary. Announcement of the winners will be made spring 2014. Submit ONLINE.
2014 Contest Judge | Cris Mazza
Cris Mazza’s first novel, How to Leave a country, won the PEN/Nelson Algren Award for book-length fiction. Some of her other notable earlier titles include Your Name Here: ___, Dog People and Is It Sexual Harassment Yet? She was co-editor of Chick-Lit: Postfeminist Fiction (FC2, 1995), and Chick-Lit 2 (No Chick Vics) (FC2, 1996), anthologies of women’s fiction. Mazza’s fiction has been reviewed numerous times in The New York Times Book Review, The Wall Street Journal, MS Magazine, Chicago Tribune Books, The Los Angeles Times Book Review, The Voice Literary Supplement, The San Francisco Review of Books, and many other book review publications. Her book Something Wrong with Her: A Hybrid Memoir is coming soon from Jaded Ibis Productions. Read an excerpt in The Doctor T. J. Eckleburg Review.
2013 Contest Judge | Rick Moody
Rick Moody is the author of the novels Garden State, which won the Pushcart Press Editors’ Book Award, The Ice Storm, Purple America, and The Diviners; two collections of stories, The Ring of Brightest Angels Around Heaven and Demonology; a memoir, The Black Veil, winner of the PEN/ Martha Albrand Award, and The Four Fingers of Death. He has received the Addison Metcalf Award, the Paris Review’s Aga Khan Prize, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. Winners will be announced at AWP 2013 in Boston, MA.
Rick Moody is the author of the novels Garden State, which won the Pushcart Press Editors’ Book Award, The Ice Storm, Purple America, and The Diviners; two collections of stories, The Ring of Brightest Angels Around Heaven and Demonology; a memoir, The Black Veil, winner of the PEN/ Martha Albrand Award, and The Four Fingers of Death. He has received the Addison Metcalf Award, the Paris Review’s Aga Khan Prize, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Awards:$500 and publication in Eckleburg to first place winner; publication to second and third place winners; listing of titles and names for honorable mentions.
All stories in English no more than 5,000 words are eligible. No minimum word count. Stories published previously in print or online venues are eligible if published after January 1, 2011. Stories can be submitted by authors, editors, publishers, and agents. Simultaneous and multiple submissions allowed. Each individual story must be submitted separately, with separate payment regardless of word count. Eckleburg editors, staff, interns and students of The Johns Hopkins University are not eligible for entry.
Manuscript
Stories must be submitted online and in manuscript form (please don’t upload entire anthologies or collections), double-spaced, Times New Roman, one-inch margins. Must be in English. Experimental to mainstream with punch aesthetics welcome. Multimedia (visual that includes text) welcome. No film or audio.
Publication
Award-winning manuscripts will be published by The Doctor T. J. Eckleburg Review. Finalists and Honorable Mentions will be listed with titles and author names. By submitting, submitters verify copyright holding and give Eckleburg rights to publish, republish and use the winning works in promotional efforts and anthology printing both print and online.
Submission
No application forms are necessary. Announcement of the winners will be made April 2013. Submit ONLINE.