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Short Fiction Prize
Dept. of English
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SUNY at Stony Brook
Stony Brook, NY 11794-5350
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Jennifer Oh writes on March 11, 2006:
"I recently won the Summer 2005 Very Short Fiction Award from Glimmer Train Stories, for my short story "Seawoman." As for older news, I graduated from Columbia's MFA creative writing program in October 2004, and I am still living in New York City, working on finishing a collection of short stories. I also recently heard that I'm a finalist for the Fulbright Scholarship to South Korea - will hear of the final decision by this May. I still very fondly remember my visit and reading at Stony Brook, and glad to see the wonderful stories that have been winning the prize these past few years. Hard to believe it's been almost five years!
September 2005 update:
Katie Hays (2000 Runner-up with Distinction) holds a 2005 M.F.A. in fiction from Brown University. Her fiction, poetry, and translations have appeared in Cimarron Review, Hudson Review, and other magazines, and her fiction has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She currently teaches in the English Department at Bucknell University, and helps to edit West Branch, a nationally-distributed journal of poetry, fiction, essays, and reviews.
Our 1st winner ever, Chris Cantellani has published his second novel THE SAINT OF LOST THINGS.
2004 runner-up Kyla Wetherell was a finalist in 2005 for a New Letters literary journal fiction award.
Jacqueline Wang, a 2004 runner-up screened her short film MATCH at the Fort lauderdale International Film Festival.
Katherin Nolte, Prize winner in 2000, finished her MFA at the University of Iowa Writers Workshop in May of 2003. She writes to us in March of 2004:
"My husband and I have moved to Midland, Texas, as he was offered a scenic design position at a theatre here. I'm working part-time at Midland College in the Foundation office. This gives me my afternoons to work on my writing.
"I have had some short stories accepted for publication in some literary magazines, including Fence and Confrontation. I just received a letter from the editor of a small journal I recently had a story appear in. She said Gordon Lish had read the piece and liked it and wanted her to pas this news on. Last month I found out that I won Writer's Digest's short short story contest (for a story under 1500 words.) It's a $2000 prize and my story, along with an interview, will appear in the June issue.
"I've finally begun working on a novel. I'm 90 pages in, and, so far at least, I think I like this form better than the short story. The writing is slow and difficult, though.
Best, Katherin Nolte"
In December of 2003 Kim Yaman writes:
"I was just taking my daughter on trips to view universities and she asked me about my college days, which prompted a trip to the Stony Brook Fiction Prize website.
"I was a 1992 honorable mention from the University of Iowa. I'm now a freelance writer in North Carolina. I've won a few professional writing awards for feature writing, including a 1999 APEX Grand Award in Writing for a magazine story on U.S. Army Gen. Henry Hugh Shelton, who was (at the time) chair of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff. I've also overseen large grant-writing projects for federal desegregation funds and received recognition in public policy writing."
Kim Yaman, University of Iowa Class of 1996, now in Cary, North Carolina
Jeannie Wang, honorable mention in 1994, wrote and directed her first film, Match, which premiered at the Hamptons Film Festival in October, 2003.
She says: "When I joined the Screen Actors Guild in 1996, I adopted a pen name, using a derivative of my dad's first name for my first name, so I now write under the name Jacqueline Wang."
Jennifer Oh, 2001 Prize winner, writes:
I just received the Fall 2003 Issue of Glimmer Train Stories with my story, "January," in it - they did a wonderful job with layout, etc. Also, they purchased "January"'s anthology rights for their first anthology, "Mothers Know," so that's exciting news. I'm not sure when this will come out, though.
Jennifer presently has a fellowship in the creative writing program at Columbia University where she's teaching an Intro to Creative Writing Class for freshmen in Barnard and Columbia.
In April of 2003 Chris Castellani (1992 winner of the Prize) writes that his first novel, A Kiss from Maddalena, is now officially in stores. His experience may be of interest to other writers:
“The experience of publishing has been surreal and joyful and scary, but I am honored to have this book published by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill. Actually, to have published a book at all is still a miracle to me. I am especially grateful to my friends, colleagues, teachers, students and family who have helped me-in ways you may not even realize-through this process.
“Set in a small Italian village in the 1940s, A Kiss from Maddalena is, in the words of one reviewer, "a bittersweet story about a young couple undone by a protracted war and the pull of family ties."
For more details-including a full description, early reviews, tour dates and more-please visit my Web site, http://www.christophercastellani.com.
“The photos, music, and design of the site capture the story, characters, tone and setting exactly as I imagined them and, hopefully, as they come through in the novel. (The site was designed by etherweave communications and I highly recommend Michael's services to anyone interested in a Web site for him/herself or for a business.)
“Though Barnes & Noble has been good to me, independent bookstores have been better. BookSense-a consortium of independent booksellers-has just voted A Kiss from Maddalena their #2 hardcover title for their May/June BookSense 76. Some booksellers have directly contacted reviewers and newspapers, put up posters or featured the book prominently in their stores. If you do plan to buy it, I hope you will consider patronizing an independent bookstore. Go to http://www.booksense.com and enter your ZIP code to find the one nearest you.
“I won't complain, of course, if you get your copy from Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble or even Costco-which apparently is also stocking it these days somewhere between the 10-gallon cans of olive oil and the free samples of 'Chik'n Bites.' If you like the book and want to say so publicly, please consider writing a customer review at Amazon.com or BN.com. These reviews really do make a difference.
“Whatever you do, I look forward to welcoming you at one of my upcoming readings on the east coast. Visit my Web site to see a list of dates and locations, and be sure to check regularly for new listings, as things change from week to week. “