Honorable Mentions

Patricia closes the children’s storybook then asks,“Who is a dog?”Six four-year-olds raise their hands. “The dogs may go outside,” she says.Ba…

He packed everything I owned and put it on the porch. That was his way of saying I had to go. She had come back into his life. I was staring a…

There is no escape from this house. The laughs behind the robin egg blue walls have driven me insane. The inedible food has reduced my waist t…

The creak of an opening door shatters my gentle dreams. Human instincts kick in before my eyes can adjust and I scramble to the edge of my bed…

Joe’s Market proprietor watches suspiciously the scarecrow rummaging the sweets section. The man grabs a chocolate, making for the door. “Hey!…

Waiting outside the crowded pub, I put down my 4-year-old son. My father stands up and hobbles to the door. Slowly we walk down the sidewalk a…

I’m up early. Everyone in the house is still asleep when I trot off to work. I take a magnificent stretch, feeling the glorious sun upon my fa…

Last year the horses froze to death during a winter like this: long, drawn out like a wire that attaches one electrical post to another, low a…

Beige. She hated the idea of it, the indecisiveness of the shade, but she also recognized that she was beige – not pure enough to be crisp whi…

When we moved in, we noticed many hummingbirds. Helen also noticed that our cat spent an inordinate amount of time in the backyard under some …

Forty pounds. At least that’s what it felt like when I hefted it into the dump truck-sized cart. The sugar-laden sack was filled with: Kit Kat…

The Gods are so cruel. Drought plagued the land. From the surfer’s coast to the farmer’s fields all felt the hot, dry air. The golf courses st…

Jonesy wound the engine tight, pedaled the clutch, and shifted into sixth gear. The needle arced across the speedometer like a rising moon acr…

You always had a soft spot for boys. It made it hard being your only daughter with four older brothers. I stayed at home and cooked and cleane…

Vitamin A, Vitamin B, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Vitamin E… Dave had neatly arranged all his many pills across the kitchen counter, so many in fact…

It was black when April sneaked out of her house. She went to the nearest club where she gave quite a pole dancing show after drinking her sev…