TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL

ZOETROPE: ALL-STORY SHORT FICTION COMPETITION

Many thanks to all who entered the 2018 Short Fiction Competition. We appreciate the opportunity to read your work.

From nearly two thousand submissions, guest judge Colum McCann honored the following stories.

First Prize:
“The Teeth” by Miles Greaves (Brooklyn, NY)

“The Teeth” surprised me on first read, and then on second, and on third it surprised me again: this is what good literature does. It's magical, and it’s haunting, and it’s just the right side of weird. It’s also beautifully, beautifully written, with some of the finest images I have come across in ages. A portrait of madness and loneliness and voyeurism that will stay with me, now, forever.
—Colum McCann

Second Prize:
“My Mother Is a Lunar Crater” by Uzma Aslam Khan (Hadley, MA)

“My Mother Is a Lunar Crater” is a classic story—beautifully crafted, smart, engaging, and shot through with depth and nuance. It does what the best stories do: it gives us imaginative access to a human moment, and a time that might otherwise pass us by.
—CM

Third Prize:
“Further West” by Gráinne Murphy (Cork, Ireland)

“Further West” sets the tone from the very first sentence, seeming to exist—apart from a few modern details—outside of time. That’s part of the charm: the story endures in a sort of everywhere. It’s colloquial and hard-hitting, but shards of sharp humor illuminate its edges. It’s wonderful.
—CM

Honorable Mentions:
“Vermin” by George Bartlett (London, England)
“The Dirty T” by Tara Cottrell (Palo Alto, CA)
“Unconditional Woman” by Camille Cusumano (San Francisco, CA)
“Tuna Mornay” by Janine Mikosza (Ormond, Australia)
“The Battles of Lexington and Concord” by Britt Peterson (Takoma Park, MD)
“Shibboleth” by David Serafino (Santa Elena, Colombia)
“The Nightingale” by Meredith Tucker (Sydney, Australia)
“Gold Coast” by Amy X. Wang (New York, NY)

First prize is $1,000; second prize, $500; and third prize, $250. The prizewinners and honorable mentions will be considered for representation by William Morris Endeavor; ICM; the Wylie Agency; Regal Literary; Dunow, Carlson & Lerner Literary Agency; Markson Thoma Literary Agency; Inkwell Management; Sterling Lord Literistic; Aitken Alexander Associates; Barer Literary; the Gernert Company; and the Georges Borchardt Literary Agency.

The winning story, “The Teeth” by Miles Greaves, has been published as a special online supplement to the Winter 2018/2019 issue.

The 2019 Short Fiction Competition opens July 1; for details, please visit the website this summer. And should you wish to receive updates by email, please write us at [email protected].

Thanks once more, and all good wishes for your work,
The editors