Short Story

Congratulations – Winners of the 2010 RW Short Story Contest!

Richard Perce, Gretchen Mannix, Jean Wong, Marilyn Campbell, Carol Hoorn

Judges Stefanie Freele and Dan Coshnear presented the contest winners at our August 8 membership meeting. Jean Wong read her first place entry and the judges talked about what they liked and why particular pieces were chosen.

Jean was born in Honolulu and likes to think that having the same favorite fourth grade teachers as President Barack Obama has something to do with her taste and karma. Her passions include choral singing, jewel art collage, rabbits and kittens, gardening, and meditation. She has been a contributor to Vintage Voices; Fast, Short, and Deadly; Synchronized Chaos; and Get Born. One of her poems has been set to music by composer Georg Hajdu and is played internationally.

Click on “Just a Joke” for the full text of the story.

Marilyn draws inspiration for her stories and poetry from years working as a social worker. She joined Redwood Writers in 2007 and has had short stories and poetry featured in its anthologies as well as in Women’s Voices.  She continues to revise her novel, Waivers, and lives in Napa with husband, Michael.

Click on “Plays Well With Others” for the full text of the story.

Gretchen grew up in St Paul, Minnesota, one of 6 kids of a Lutheran pastor and a Librarian. She attended 6^th grade in Edinburgh, Scotland; at St. Paul, MN high school; in Schiller College, Kleiningersheim, Germany; and Sonoma State College. In 1974 she went to Anchorage, Alaska for 6 months, with 2 kids, 2 suitcases and $20. She stayed for 26 years., working for a statewide Native-owned village enterprise development corporation, the Governor’s Office and Legislative Finance. She returned to Sonoma County in 2008.

Click on  “This Is As Good As It Gets, Fellas” for the full text of the story.

Honorable Mentions (in no particular order)

Richard Perce, “Load Up”

I was raised in New Mexico and northern Arizona. Forty years as a practicing veterinarian on the racetracks of New Mexico, the mountains of Colorado and, starting in 1989, the wine country have provided me with ample story material. Now my challenge is learning the craft.

Writing is my drug of choice. Published poems in Tom Cat Journal and two in Redwood Anthologies. Recognition for a short story is an incentive to continue till I run out of time.I thank the wisdom and inspiration of Marlene Cullen for several years, and now, Susan Bono.

Click on  “The Button” for the full text of the story.

Judges

Daniel Coshnear lives in Guerneville, California with his wife and two children. He works at a group home for men and women with mental illnesses and substance dependencies and he teaches writing at a variety of SF bay area university extension programs. He is a recipient of an Editors’ Prize from The Missouri Review and a Christopher Isherwood Foundation Fellowship and he is author of Jobs & Other Preoccupations (Helicon Nine 2001), winner of the Willa Cather Fiction Award, and a Bay Area Book Reviewers’ Association Award. He is also a contributor to and editor of 95% Naked: Fictions and Nonfictions www.createspace.com/3417260, a new anthology of work by his writing workshop in Penngrove. E-mail:dan@coshnear.org David Coshnear

Stefanie Freele, Healdsburg Literary Laureate 2010-2011, is the author of the short story collection, Feeding Strays, published by Lost Horse Press. Her recent and forthcoming works can be found in Glimmer Train, American Literary Review, Night Train, The Pedestal Magazine, Necessary Fiction, and Literary Mama. Stefanie has an MFA from the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts: Whidbey Writers Workshop. After serving as the 2008 Writer in Residence for SmokeLong Quarterly, she joined their editorial staff. Stefanie teaches creative writing at the Healdsburg Plaza Arts Center and is also the Fiction Editor for the Los Angeles Review. www.stefaniefreele.com Stefanie Freele