[Introduction] [Winners] [Winners Bios] [Finalists] [Celebrity Judges] [Sponsors]

The Results of the Sixth Annual Short Story Contest

Memoirs & Monkeys

The memoir made quite a showing in the literary world this year -- bestseller lists were riddled with them -- especially by first-time or newish writers whose critics harped on the opinion that it should take an author years of published works before turning out an autobiographical opus. Of course the critics couldn't deny them either; memoirs are evocative pieces of work that give weight and color to the life experience by straddling the fence between fiction and reality, and the eyes of a writer focusing back on a moment of perception can justify a reader's own existence. In general, most of the stories entered in the contest are written in the first person, and just because a story is in the first person doesn't necessarily brand it a memoir, but the pieces among this year's winners did have an air of retelling about them. Certainly, though, this national trend can hardly account for the inordinate amount of stories we received about monkeys (none among the finalists, however) this time around. Perhaps the upswing in the modern primitive philosophy is to blame.

This year, entries were back up in number. Close to 700 stories were entered in the contest, and no matter how well organized and thorough the judging process -- each story is read by two different readers before they go on to the celebrity judges -- it never fails that on the last night before the judging dinner I find myself on the floor with the copies of all of the stories scattered around me, leafing through each one again and again to make absolutely sure we haven't looked over the next Martin Amis, Paul Auster, or Margaret Atwood. Used to be I complained about that night, but I have to admit that now I actually look forward to these quiet hours among words that mean so much to their creators.

Special thanks to Chronicle marketing director Tommi Ferguson who did the best job yet of making sure the contest came off smoothly, to all the celebrity judges (most who have been with us since the very beginning), and to fellow short story addict Manuel Gonzales who read almost as many of the stories as I did. Thanks also to our first round of judges, all fiction lovers in their own right, Beth Miller, Kayte VanScoy, Joseph Strickland, Kim Mellen, Mindi Holzschuh, Melissa Nichols, Scott Blackwood, Karen Rheudasil, Deborah Wilson, and Brian Carr. And of course we are grateful for our co-sponsers, without whom The Austin Chronicle Short Story Contest wouldn't exist: BookPeople, 107.1 KGSR, Shiner Bock, Magnolia Cafe, and Zoetrope Short Stories, the new literary quarterly published by Francis Ford Coppola that has agreed to take our winners under consideration for publication. -- Jen Scoville

First Place: The Girl in the Back of the Polaroid by Everett Saucedo

Second Place: Queen of Queens by Jane Thurmond

Third Place: Three Times Dead by Cecilia Cortez

Fourth Place: The Church of Fat Lucky by Marlys West

Fifth Place: A Remembrance of Things Past, Already by Daniel Zabcik

Don't forget to join us for a reading with the winners on Saturday, July 19, 3pm at BookPeople on the Third Floor Special Events Stage.

Everett Saucedo -- First Place

Everett Saucedo has been in Austin for about a year now. He moved here for the most noble of reasons -- he had nothing better to do. Though a resident of the Texas Siberia known as El Paso for nearly all his life, he relocated here from Washington, D.C., where he completed a four-year international relations boot camp at Georgetown University. While in college he wrote for two campus publications: one, the staid, formulaic official campus newspaper and the other a more subversive rag that once faked the death of the school president.

Jane Thurmond -- Second Place

Jane Thurmond, a recovering Queen with a Scepter, is a writer and freelance graphic designer. "Queen of Queens" is part of a collection of interrelated short stories and novellas entitled Queen Judy Ann of the House of Wiggins. The collection has not yet been published in its entirety.

Cecilia Cortez -- Third Place

El Paso native, Cecilia Cortez de Magallanes, studied creative writing and religion at Sarah Lawrence College in New York and at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico. "Three Times Dead" is her first submission to a publication. She is an avid reader of Latin American literature and draws inspiration from her family's stories.

Marlys West -- Fourth Place

Marlys West will be entering UT as a a post-graduate Michener Fellow at the Texas Center for Writers this fall. She received an MFA in poetry from the Texas Center for Writers this past spring, and is currently working on two collections of poems. She has been published in several journals, most recently Berkeley Poetry Review and Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review. Upcoming publications include Mississippi Mud. Marlys also works at the Texas School for the Blind and Central Market.

Daniel Everett Zabcik -- Fifth Place

Daniel Everett Zabcik was born in Hobbs, New Mexico, in 1960, but his family has lived in Central Texas for several generations. He lives on a small farm in Southern Williamson County where he grows not only hay but also surlier by the minute.



(l-r) Robert Draper, Elizabeth Cook, Tom Grimes, Robin Bradford, Mary Willis Walker, Jesse Sublett, and Neal Barrett, Jr. (Mike Hall not pictured)
photograph by Jana Birchum

Elizabeth Crook is the author of two historical novels: The Raven's Bride (Doubleday, 1991) and Promised Lands (Doubleday 1993). She is currently at work on her third novel, a murder mystery set in New Mexico at the turn of the century.

Mary Willis Walker just finished a book to be published in March: All the Dead Lie Down. She is also the author of the mysteries Under the Beetle's Cellar, The Red Scream, and Zero at the Bone.

Tom Grimes is the author of three novels, A Stone of the Heart (A New York Times Notable Book, Season's End (James Michener Fellowship), and City of God, recently published by W.W. Norton UK/Picador, and Gallinard. He directs the graduate creative writing program at Southwest Texas State.

Robin Bradford was recently awarded a 1997-98 Literature Grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts. She won an O. Henry Award in 1995. Her stories have appeared in journals such as Fiction, Chelsea, Central Park, and New Letters. A contributor to The Austin Chronicle since 1990, she has recently completed her first novel.

Neal Barrett, Jr.'s novels and stories, spanning the field from science fiction, historical fiction, and mystery/suspense, have been acclaimed by readers and critics alike. Barrett's first novel Pink Vodka Blues was optioned and sold this year to Paramount Pictures. His second mystery novel, Dead Dog Blues, was published in 1994; Skinny Annie Blues -- the first in the "Wiley Moss" series -- followed in 1996; and Bad Eye Blues came out in June of this year.

Robert Draper is the author of Rolling Stone Magazine: The Uncensored History. An award-winning investigative journalist, he has been a Senior Editor at Texas Monthly since 1993, and will be leaving the magazine at the end of the month to become a writer-at-large for GQ.

Jesse Sublett is the author of the critically acclaimed mystery novels Rock Critic Murders, Tough Baby, and Boiled in Concrete, which feature an Austin blues musician named Martin Fender. Jesse also writes for film, television, and multimedia, and is a frequent contributor to the Chronicle. He's currently working on his fourth novel.

Michael Hall is a well-known Austin musician and was once a managing editor at The Austin Chronicle, helping to create the first Short Story Contest ever. He is an associate editor at Texas Monthly.

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