Literati!
This is the part where the Editor-in-Chief thanks all the participants (Thank you) and stresses how hard it must have been for everyone who voted because all the stories were so good. (They were.)
I myself read each story several times, and their authenticity lingered. (Still does.) If I were the lone judge, picking the winner would have been a game of pin the tail (tale) on the donkey. Each one more poignant than the last.
A word about authenticity: In One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, unlike the movie version we know on page one that the narrator is Chief Broom, so named because daily he silently pushes a broom across the floor in a sanitarium in Oregon circa 1950. He has all his faculties, but everyone believes he is deaf and dumb. He’s just being cagey, figgers it is safer that way. But on page three he delivers this observation: “If I told you all the stuff that went on in this place, you’d say I was crazy…but it’s the truth, even if it didn’t happen.”
That is my best understanding of what fiction is.
But our contestants all wrote something based on a real event, and the authenticity was in the emotions they so passionately and convincingly conveyed to the reader.
We have published anthologies in the past, The Coffeshop Chronicles, 5×5-Keeping the Dream Afloat, and others. The quality of the entries has inspired me to propose the next anthology in which all these entries (with the author’s consent) will be published, once we’ve accumulated additional stories from three or four monthly contests.
Oh…I almost forgot. Our winner for First Love, Second Chance is Miryam Howard. Congratulations!
Thanks to all my ‘word with you’ friends for reading my entries and especially for our editor-in-chief, Thornton Sully! I appreciate your votes of confidence and comments. Many years ago,,,,(how long was it T?) I responded to a Craigs List add for writers….I was skeptical…. but curious enough to respond. What followed was more than I anticipated and have been a big fan of AWWYP ever since! It provided me with encouragement to pursue my love of writing and allowed me to get to know many of you. At my present great-gramma age, I hope to exchange many more stories, but most importantly, I have been greatly moved by the hearts of my wonderfully diverse writer friends. I share this winning recognition with you all and pay the cash prize forward to further projects of our tribe of writers.