As Max passed between the stanchions he extended his hand to Rita. She strained to elongate her fingers while rotating her wrist, willing her rough hand to appear delicate. She then placed her hand atop his, as if he were about to escort her into a ballroom. “Aren’t you a tall drink of… Continue reading “Rita Dolores” in ImageOutWrite v. 8
Category: awards
Worker Names is a 📖.
My first book, Worker Names, is out. It’s a mini-collection of 3 short stories, See if you can peep the theme: “Worker Name”: a wary hustler finds himself in a hostage situation with a yuppie on crack and a Bulgarian hipster boy. “Raunch Daddy”: an earnest young hustler meets a Mexican novelist with a nose… Continue reading Worker Names is a 📖.
Gertrude Press announces 2018 Chapbook Contest winners
Gertrude Press publishes three chapbooks a year: poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Their announcement of 2018’s winners is here. My entry, a collection of short stories called “Worker Names,” is the fiction winner, and the chapbook is in production. From “Traumatic Book Review: Alive, by Piers Paul Reed”: Warner nudged him awake with a bare foot; he… Continue reading Gertrude Press announces 2018 Chapbook Contest winners
“Yasss Child” in A+U Magazine
“Yasss Child“, a remembrance of one of my oldest friends–one of the earliest AIDS diagnoses in NYC–won First Honorable Mention from the 2018 Christopher Hewitt Award for Creative Nonfiction: The first time he stepped through my door, I thought Nico’s flamboyance was weakness, but I’ve come to see it as emblematic of his bravery.
“TBR: AbPPR” a 2018 #SASFEST Semifinalista 👸🏽
“Traumatic Book Review, Alive, by Piers Paul Read“, my submission for the 2018 Saints + Sinners fiction contest, made the semifinalist cut. I read Alive probably too young. I was freaked out by the fate of the Old Christians rugby team, even while longing for their camaraderie. So I grew up to write a short story… Continue reading “TBR: AbPPR” a 2018 #SASFEST Semifinalista 👸🏽
#SASFest17 Class Photo
Atop the Quarter in the Hotel Monteleone’s Vieux Carré Room with some fellow Saints & Sinners Short Fiction Contest finalists: Debra Curtis, winner J. Marshall Freeman, P.D. Walter, runner-up Alise Wascom, Thomas Westerfield, Louis Flint Ceci, Chris Smith, William Moeck, and contest judge Michael Thomas Ford. Get the anthology over at Bold Strokes.
Miss Bensonhurst a W@W finalist 👑
“She and the girls are enveloped in the warm bakelite booth. A curtain shields her from the crowds. The two little angels share the hard seat. The camera – that possessed apparatus which would stalk her to the end – here blinks obediently. Flash.” “Miss Bensonhurst,” a fictional account of my grandmother Helen Rizzo’s friendship… Continue reading Miss Bensonhurst a W@W finalist 👑
UPDATE: “Jesus Year” a finalist 👸🏽
Saints & Sinners has narrowed the selection down to 15 finalists and JY made the cut. The story will be published in the 2017 anthology published by Bold Strokes. Michael Thomas Ford is judging the contest this year. Congrats to fellow finalists–see you in New Orleans for the festival.
“Jesus Year” a semi-finalist 🙌🏽
in the Short Fiction contest of the 2017 Saints and Sinners Literary Festival. The story, a fractured fairy tale, is based on “Nailed Up.” Chris Tolliver wakes up on his Jesus Year birthday in a hotel room in Bethlehem (PA) after his re-enactment of the central myth of the Catholic faith goes off the rails. With the help of a hustler… Continue reading “Jesus Year” a semi-finalist 🙌🏽
Christopher Hewitt 2015 Award for Fiction
And they will halt my ghastly nose-dive into hell, and lift me up, up, high up into the fields of stars. The quote is from “The Lifting Team” by Christopher Hewitt, poet, “queer crip”, person in recovery, posthumous honoree of the award I received this year for “Drowned River.”