With 273 submissions, the most we’ve ever received for the Kathy Fish Fellowship, SmokeLong Quarterly is pleased to announce that Shasta Grant is the winner of the 2016 Kathy Fish Fellowship award. Shasta will be our writer-in-residence for our quarterly issues in 2016, and we are thrilled to get to work with her.
In addition, thanks to the generosity of those applicants that added a $5 donation to their submission packet, we are ELATED to say that we’ve raised enough funds to host the 2017 Kathy Fish Fellowship! Look for more details on that award later in summer 2016.
Shasta won the 2015 Kenyon Review Short Fiction Contest, judged by Ann Patchett. Her stories and essays have appeared or are forthcoming in cream city review, Epiphany, Gargoyle, Kenyon Review, wigleaf, and elsewhere. She has an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and is a prose editor for Storyscape Journal. She also loves coffee, so she’ll fit right in with our staff.
Our editors thought Shasta’s stories had a consistent voice and a readable style. We liked how she takes the familiar themes of parenting and family to a new level. Her stories have a strong emotional quality to them and are surprising and original.
You can read Shasta’s SLQ stories starting in our March issue.
In addition, we want to recognize the following finalists. Their work was brilliant, and the competition was very tough this year. Congratulations to these 12 finalists:
Tyrese Coleman
Fiona Collins
Kerry Cullen
Leonora Desar
Kim Hagerich
Michele Johnson
Emily Koon
Eileen Merriman
Amy Rossi
Erin Somers
Kaj Tanaka
Cady Vishniac
Thank you to all our applicants. It was a pleasure to read your work.
And Happy New Year to all!
