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2008 NC State
Short Story Contests

GUEST JUDGE:
Atlantic Monthly Fiction Editor
C. Michael Curtis

The contest has been decided, and C. Michael Curtis, fiction editor for The Atlantic Monthly Magazine has made his choices, which you see below. We give thanks, yet again, to the Brenda L. Smart Fund for Creative Writing for providing the prize money and encouragement for what has become the largest no-fee literary contest in North Carolina, and we thank YOU (all 286+ of you) for participating. Here are the results:

Winner of the 2008 Brenda L. Smart
Fiction Prize ($500)

  • Erica Plouffe Lazure, “The Cold Front” (Greenville, NC)

Honorable Mentions

  • Robert McGee, “The Last Great Skull Man” (Asheville, NC)
  • Katherine Pearl, “Invisible Force Fields” (Raleigh, NC)

Finalists

  • Megan Mayhew Bergman, “Bound to Land” (Raleigh, NC)
  • Kevin Casey, “The Welcome Brigade” (Raleigh, NC)
  • Roger Cordes, “Window One Dollar” (Oriental, NC)
  • Josh Eure, “Only An Engine” (Hertford, NC)
  • Smriti Jaiswal, "The Temple" (Durham, NC)
  • Tommy Jenkins, “Three Plays” (Raleigh, NC)
  • Aimee Mepham, “Cul-de-sac” (Winston-Salem, NC)
  • Daniel Parsons, “Rose (La Diabla)” (Raleigh, NC)
  • Alisonn Rose, “Mira’s Treasure” (Raleigh, NC)
  • Ben Turney, “Back to the Old Ladies” (Durham, NC)

Winner of the 2008 Brenda L. Smart
Award for Short Fiction ($250)

  • Kevin Casey, "April Wade " (Raleigh, NC)

Honorable Mention

  • Paul Dixon, "What I Got, I Got" (Winterville, NC)

Finalists

  • Jake Burnett, "Zeke Skeen" (Raleigh, NC)
  • Aileen Carson, "Conflict in the Sixties" (Winston-Salem, NC)
  • Smriti Jaiswal, "Bad Mother" (Durham, NC)
  • Lisa Long, “Amen” (Chapel Hill, NC)
  • Robert McGee, "There Was An Echo" (Asheville, NC)
  • Jason Orders, "Severance" (Apex, NC)
  • Megan Roberts, "Gestures" (Greenville, NC)
  • Sarah Simpson, “Someone You Don’t Know Who Loves You" (Cary, NC)
  • Diana Spindler-Jones, “Liz Phair’s Voice Change” (Cary, NC)
  • Rachel Wingo, "Us" (Raleigh, NC)

Winner of the 2008 Brenda L. Smart
Undergraduate Fiction Prize ($100)

  • Joel Mikkelsen, “Mascot” (Senior, Philosophy)

Winner of the 2007
Brenda L. Smart Fiction Prize ($500)
Whit Coppedge, "Paint" (Chapel Hill, NC)

Honorable Mentions
Josh Eure, "Balloon Vine" (Hertford, NC)

Megan Roberts, "Corners" (Greenville, NC)

Finalists

Robin Follet, "Sarcasm" (Cary, NC)

Parfait Gasana, "Equilibrium"  (Chapel Hill, NC)

Cathy James, "Mr. Chinese Right" (Weaverville, NC)
Molly McCaffrey, "The Other Man" (Laurinburg, NC)
Katherine Pearl, "Unscheduled Departures" (Raleigh, NC)

Eric Roe, "Notes from Lazarus" (Raleigh, NC)

Maureen Sherbondy, "The Final Simcha"  (Raleigh, NC)
Jodi Lynn Villers, "ABC"  (Raleigh, NC)

Brendan Walsh, "Bruised" (Raleigh, NC)

Lisa Ward, "Road Side" (Raleigh, NC)

Anne Woodman, "Cherries in the Snow"  (Morrisville, NC)


Winner of the 2007
Brenda L. Smart Award for Short Fiction ($250)

Jodi Lynn Villers, "Vocabulary Builder "  (Raleigh, NC)

Honorable Mention
Tommy Jenkins, "The Scar "  (Raleigh, NC)

Finalists
Jane Andrews, "Frames" (Raleigh, NC)

Whitman Bolles, "Down There"  (Chapel Hill, NC)

Whit Coppedge, "Irritated " (Chapel Hill, NC)
Paul Dixon, "Snap" (Winterville, NC)
Molly McCaffrey, "Look Away " (Laurinburg, NC)
Robert McGee, "That Woman That Night"  (Asheville, NC)
Shailen Mishra, "Performance Behind A Theater" (Raleigh, NC)

Megan Roberts, "R Like Me " (Greenville, NC)
Sarah Simpson, "Conservation" (Raleigh, NC)
Jennifer Weathers, "Triplets"  (Wilmington, NC)

The Brenda L. Smart Undergraduate Fiction Prize ($100)
Josh Eure, "Balloon Vine" (Hertford, NC)


Winner of the 2006
Brenda L. Smart Grand Prize for Fiction ($500)
 Amy Knox Brown , "Why We Are the Way We Are" 

         (Winston-Salem, NC)

Honorable Mentions

Mitch Conover, "A Short Story for the Last Man Who Still Liked

         Whistling Dixie" (Chapel Hill, NC)

Molly McCaffrey, "The Lake in Winter" (Laurinburg, NC)

Fellow Finalists:
William Boggess, “There”  (Burnsville, NC)
Danielle DeRise, “Small Bodies”  (Wilmington, NC)
Paul Dixon, “Precious Memories”  (Winterville, NC)
Mary Hennessy, “Chicago”  (Raleigh, NC)
Nell Joslin, “Danny”  (Raleigh, NC)
Kathleen Laughlin, “Persons in Need of Supervision”  (Cary, NC)
Shailen Mishra, “The Fifty Year Old Dream”  (Raleigh, NC)
Jeanne Mullins, “On the Spectrum”  (Wilmington, NC)
Melinda Shail, “Pluto—Not A Planet Anymore”  (Raleigh, NC)
Stella Ward Whitlock, “Bear Train”  (Fayetteville, NC)

Winner of the 2006
Brenda L. Smart Award for Short Fiction ($250)
Megan Mayhew Bergman, “The Wet Bones of Eldress Parker Comar”
(Raleigh, NC)

Honorable Mentions
Jane Andrews,  “Nautilus”  (Raleigh, NC)

Fellow Finalists:
David Bell, “Second Choice”  (Laurinburg, NC)
Melissa Bickey, “November Water”  (Winston-Salem, NC)
Vicki Crouser, “In Holyoke Hell”  (Winston-Salem, NC)
Adam Currie, “Cleaning House” (Wendell, NC)
Cathy Freeman, “Daisies”  (Chapel Hill, NC)
Zackary Vernon, “Birthday Suit and the Texture Flat”  (Hillsborough, NC)
Jodi Lynn Villers, “Church Bells”  (Raleigh, NC)
Robert Wallace, “Why Do Cold Brown Chickens Wear Watered-Down Pants?”  (Durham, NC)
Kate Wheeler, “Mark and Jane Talk About Math”  (Carrboro, NC)

 The Brenda L. Smart Undergraduate Fiction Prize ($100)
Adam Currie, “Cleaning House” (Wendell, NC)
\

2005 NC State

Short Story Contests                  

GUEST JUDGE:  LEE SMITH

lee smith and winners
NCSU professor emeritus and 2005 Guest Judge, novelist LEE SMITH (center) with this year's winners:  AMY KNOX BROWN (for the short-short) from Winston-Salem, NC and WHITMAN BOLLES (for the grand prize) from Chapel Hill, NC.

Winner of the 2005
Brenda L. Smart Fiction Prize
Whitman Bolles, "The Saving of the Turtles"  (Chapel Hill, NC)

Honorable Mentions
Erica Berkeley, "Fine People Come About By Accident"
                               (Pittsboro, NC)
Sarah Boone, "Homecoming"  (Raleigh, NC)

Fellow Finalists
Greg Behr, "Massapequa"  (Cary, NC)
Daniel DeRise, "Who Said Anything About Love?" (Wilmington, NC)
Kalyani Deshpande, "The Drawing on the Wall" (Morrisville, NC)
Kristine Forrest, "Waves"  (Cary, NC)
Rebecca Morgan Gee,  "Icie"  (Apex, NC)
Matt Griffin, "Final Expenses"  (Winston-Salem, NC)
Miriam Delaney Heard, "Southern Sweetness" 
                                (Winston-Salem, NC)
Nell Joslin, "Amputee"  (Raleigh, NC)
Penelope Robbins, "Like the Moon, Only Fuller"  (Raleigh, NC)
Leslie Youngblood, "Poor Girl's Palace"  (Greensboro, NC)

Winner of the 2005
Brenda L. Smart Award for Short Fiction

Amy Knox Brown, "Sitting Bull's Translator Remembers the
                Speech in Bismarck, N.D." (Winston-Salem, NC)

Honorable Mentions
Claire Guyton, "Demonstrating the Versatility of a Blender"
                                                        (Raleigh, NC)
Miriam Delaney Heard, "Samson's Might" (Winston-Salem, NC)

Fellow Finalists
Whit Coppedge, "My Wife Knows Where I Keep My
                            Golf Clubs in Winter" (Chapel Hill, NC)
Paul Dixon, "Have A Nice Day" (Winterville, NC)
Mackenzie Dotson, "Stark White" (Cary, NC)
Mary Hennessy, "A Clean Sheet" (Raleigh, NC)
Leigh Johnson, "Stranded" (Raleigh, NC)
Sharon Kurtzman, "Slanted" (Raleigh, NC)
Elizabeth Livingston, "Light At Dusk" (Raleigh, NC)
Claire Moseley, "We All Fall Down" (Asheville, NC)
Jodi Lynn Villers, "Underwater Where It's Safe" (Raleigh, NC)

The Brenda L. Smart Undergraduate Fiction Prize
Claire Moseley (from Asheville, NC) a senior in Parks & Recreation,
for her short-short story "We All Fall Down"


For 2003 & 2004 winners and finalists, click here.