The Winners

First Place: 'Deliver Me'

John Roberts is a graduate of the University of Texas who lives in Virginia. He was a finalist in the 2006 Austin Chronicle Short Story Contest. His fiction has appeared in Word Riot, Monkeybicyle, and in the short story anthology See You Next Tuesday. He lives on a small farm where he distributes hay to geriatric horses while nursing truly hideous sinus allergies. Because his wife is stunning.

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Second Place: 'Cribdeath: Bellocq's Girl'

For more than 25 years, F.J. Schaack has taught creative writing, including at St. Edward's and Westwood High School. His efforts have previously been published in Blue Mesa Review, The Seattle Review, The Black Scholar, The Texas Observer, Santa Barbara Review, Utter, and other mags and anthologies. His doctorate in humanities was recognized from UT-Arlington. And he's a little crazy about his wife, Phyllis.

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Third Place: 'Rendezvous'

Before moving to Berlin in 2007, Kerri Mullen lived in Chicago, central Illinois, New Zealand, and France. Her work has most recently been published by the extra room, Bordercrossing Berlin, Featherproof Books, and Turbine, the literary journal of Victoria University in New Zealand. She is seeking representation for her novel, Big Mess.

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Honorable Mention: 'Mother'

Ben Roberts is a James A. Michener fellow in fiction at the University of Texas. His writing has appeared in Quarterly West and Coe Review. He lives in Austin with his wife, Jessica, and son, Solomon.

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Honorable Mention: 'A Time and Times'

Jason Lee went to film school at New York University ('09) but has very little interest in making movies. He began writing fiction a little over a year ago, a couple of months after he came of legal drinking age. He harbors some doubts as to the coincidence in this and is currently hard at work on a book of personal poems in the guise of a chapter-by-chapter reworking of the Bible.