First of all, many thanks to all who submitted work to the Opossum Prize contest! Choosing the winners was a difficult process due to the high quality of so many of the manuscripts, but here’s the list of finalists and prize recipients. All of the revenue went towards the honorariums for the winners, so for those who did not make the top three spots, know that your submission fee went to support some talented working artists. Also, a special thanks to David Kirby, who helped out with the poetry judging in heroic fashion after Gerard’s death.
Fiction Finalists:
Cami S. Newbold, “Fast Burgers”
Suzanne Samples, “The Truth About Monster Ballads”
Hilary Hawke, “The Girl with Two Hearts”
Robert Morgan Fisher, “Beryl”
Jacob Appel, “The Clod at Sea”
Richard Key, “Facing The Music”
Robert Kinerk, “How We Made Our Hit Song”
First Place: Melanie Malinowski, “Girl Weds Dog: Same Old Story, Same Old Song and Dance”
Second Place: Jacob Appel, “Cavitation”
Third Place: Richard Ballou, “The Man over There”
Poetry Finalists:
Lisa Bledsoe, “White Girl Juke”
Susan Zeni, “Oktoberfest, Group Home”
Annie Woodford, “Eat a Lot of Peaches”
Evan Williams, “Propeller Body”
Libbe Dennard, “New York Jazz Jazz Musicians”
Mark Svenvold, “Hesitation Interval” (from “Two Poems from On Tour with Robinson”
Melissa Cannon, “My Body As”
First Place: Eric Nicholson, “Mahler’s Third Symphony”
Second Place: Cathy Sky, “Crazy”
Third Place: Steven Hollander, “Mapplethorpe Leather”
Flash (Fiction and Nonfiction) Finalists:
Kelly Martineau, “The Shelf Life of Roller Skates”
Melanie Malinowski, “Pregnancy Test”
Amanda Rush, “Autopsy Report”
Paul Jones, “Betty’s Current Status”
Jacob Wrich, “Why We Can’t Go in the Castle”
Gail Taylor, “Spent”
Michael McCormick, “Lava Lady”
First Place: Allison Hong Merrill, “Kingdom of Shoes”
Second Place: Leona Vander Molen, “Don’t Be Scared, I Love You”
Third Place: Bee Harris, “Livin La Vida Lockdown”