** FIRST PLACE **
Oregon poet and author Broderick Eaton is the recipient of the Sixfold Poetry Prize and the Orison Books Anthology Prize in Non-Fiction. Her works of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction have been featured in numerous journals and anthologies, and she has been recognized by the Oregon Poetry Association for poems in both English and Spanish. She studied with Mary Oliver while at Sweet Briar College and holds an MFA from Lindenwood University. Her first poetry chapbook came out in August 2022 from Finishing Line Press.
** SECOND PLACE **
Terry Sanville lives in San Luis Obispo, California with his artist-poet wife (his in-house editor) and two plump cats (his in-house critics). He writes full time, producing short stories, essays, and novels. His short stories have been accepted more than 500 times by journals, magazines, and anthologies including The American Writers Review, The Bryant Literary Review, and Shenandoah. He was nominated three times for Pushcart Prizes and once for inclusion in Best of the Net anthology. Terry is a retired urban planner and an accomplished jazz and blues guitarist – who once played with a symphony orchestra backing up jazz legend George Shearing.
** THIRD PLACE **
Jane Frankel is a children's librarian with a love for horror and science fiction. She studied creative writing while at Mount Holyoke College, and belongs to the Northern Connecticut Writers Workshop. Jane shares her writing space with her husband, her dog, and a cat who occasionally gets trapped in the walls. This is her first published story.
William E Burleson is an award-winning author of both fiction and non-fiction. His short stories have appeared or will be appearing in over two dozen literary journals and anthologies to date, including the Evening Street Press & Review, The New Guard, and American Fiction 14 and 16, and he is the winner of the 2022 TulipTree Publishing contest for humor. He is now working on a novel, Ahnwee Days, the story of a small town that has seen better days and the mayor who tries to save it. Burleson also has published extensively in non-fiction, most notably his book, Bi America (Haworth Press, 2005), as well as for the Hennepin History Magazine and numerous other publications. Burleson is also the founder of and executive editor for Flexible Press, whose recent work includes the novels Tell Us When To Go, Secret Waltz, and Ready, Set Oh. He hails from Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he lives with his wife and two dogs a stone's throw from the Mississippi River. For examples of past work and more information, visit www.williamburleson.com.
Ms. Amis is an attorney and judicial officer who has always enjoyed creative writing. Her characters are inspired by the extraordinary people she has had the pleasure to meet and by the beauty of natural surroundings near her Pacific Northwest home. She enjoys gardening immensely and prefers dirt under her nails to wearing gloves.
She has published stories in Perspectives Magazine, Reminisce Extra, 2019, 2020 and 2021 Scribes Valley Publishing Anthologies, Beyond the Norm, Where Tales Grip, and Story Harvest, Linden Avenue Literary Journal, For Women Who Roar, several Writing It Real Anthologies and in 101words.com.
Steve Putnam’s short fiction has appeared in recent Scribes Valley annual anthologies, also Whiskey Island, Magazine, and Carbon Culture Review. Another, ‘Dummy in a Guard Shack’ will soon appear in Main Street Rag. Novels Academy of Reality and Loose Horse Lost, both made finalist lists in the 2019 Faulkner-Wisdom Competition in New Orleans. Both are still available for publication.
Dora Emma Esze is a bilingual author born in Budapest who has been in an iron-clad alliance with the English language since the age of nine. She studied English literature and French literature at ELTE, used to work as a journalist and is truly in love with translation. She has written nine novels in Hungarian and is currently creating short stories in English, looking forward to doing it the other way round. Mother of two miraculous twin boys, almost grown up now. Typically experimenting with both sides of borders and boundaries: Budapest, Britain, Hertfordshire, Hungary, hop, hope.
Recently retired from U.S. Public Health Service as Safety & Health Officer and worked for agencies of Indian Health Service and Food & Drug Administration in several states including North Dakota, and the state of Washington. Home for my husband and myself is Belle Fourche, South Dakota
Some of my writing/stories reflect growing up in a small town in Southern Colorado in the 1960s and 1970s. Writing began when I took part in local writing classes and attended the Belle Fourche SD Writers group.
When not reading or writing, I enjoy hiking and taking photographs of the Black Hills such as Crazy Horse Monument, Mt. Rushmore area, and Devils Tower in Wyoming.
Brian Sluga is the grandson of Italian immigrants. He is a change management consultant, author, and avid bicyclist. Brian has a Bachelor’s degree in communications from Bradley University and in December 2022 received an MFA in creative writing at Lindenwood University.
Brian has self-published two Amazon books. My first book Not Just My Poetry It's Your Life, Too was published in 2019. Other publications include the 2018 & 2019 Waco Word Fest Anthology, the Poetry Marathon and Texas' Best Emerging Poets 2019. His new Amazon published book, From Now to The End of Time is his 2nd book.
Sluga is currently working on several manuscripts to try to secure an agent from a small press.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Joseph Salerno is the product of twelve years of Catholic School, after which he attended Columbia for three years. In younger years, he held a variety of occupations (Title Searcher, Architectural Draftsman, et. al), but he has settled on being an Office Manager for a small accounting firm.
Joseph has a degree in Psychology from SUNY Empire State College. An avid short story reader and writer, he is a member of The Long Island Writer’s Guild. He has self-published thirteen chapbooks of short stories in the past nine years.
Joseph’s work has appeared in GUILDERS ’84: The Literary Magazine of Hofstra University (1984), OPEN MINDS QUARTERLY (2014), and he was a finalist for the short story prize in the SCRIBES VALLEY PUBLISHING ANTHOLOGY in 2019 and 2020.
He is an enthusiastic board game player (quite ruthless and verbal at Backgammon), and he lives with about a dozen large house plants in an apartment three blocks from the New York City limits.
Joseph sincerely thanks Dr. Alina Djougarian and Dr. Faye Warren for the restoration of his vision and the main inspiration for this story.
Danielle Babineau began writing at age 14 after receiving a typewriter from her grandmother. She enjoys weaving surreal bits of life into her fiction and has found ample material for this during her years living and teaching in Florida. Her studies include creative writing, English, and Latin American Studies, her interests range from travel to politics, and she excels at awkward social interactions.
TRY IT ON-MAYBE IT FITS
At age seventy-five, Ronna Edelstein embraces her daily routine of reading, writing, tutoring (by Zoom), watching the news, walking, and napping. With the pandemic posing a somewhat diminished threat, Ronna has again returned to her beloved theatre, both as an usher and a patron. Ronna is grateful to Scribes for publishing her fifteenth story starring Vera; she also appreciates the support of Pulse: Voices from the Heart of Medicine for including her essays in its monthly online journal. Ronna attributes her writing success to her mother, father, and paternal grandmother, all of whom were avid readers and taught her to value the beauty of language; to her son and daughter, both of whom encourage her to write and consistently praise her essays and works of fiction; to the University of Pittsburgh and Northwestern University, schools that educated her on the writing process as an undergraduate and graduate student, respectively; and to her students, her extended family who gave her the opportunity to inspire them to become their own writers.
As the daughter of an antiquarian book dealer, Taria grew up surrounded by far more books than is healthy for one person. After a Literature degree, a journalism course and some gratuitous vocabulary overuse, her stories have appeared in a Hagrid-sized handful of anthologies and have won enough literary prizes to fill his other hand. Despite this, she has no need as yet for larger millinery.
BLOOMS OF REMEMBRANCE
As an only child growing up in Brooklyn but not far from the beauty of Forest Park, my imagination (mostly playing with my dolls) was my companion when my "real friends" weren't available.
I had a public school education and graduated from Queens college in 1974 with a degree in childhood education and the social sciences. Later on in life as I married and had children, my creativity inspired them to play not only with toys but to create scenarios using their imagination. This rite of passage has been passed down to my grandchildren.
Writing poetry and short stories is an enjoyment that lifts my spirit. I am grateful for the opportunity that Scribes Valley has given me.
With appreciation,
TO GRANDMOTHER'S HOUSE
The winner of the first National Public Radio’s Selected Shorts Writing Contest, Mr. Richman’s work has also won contests at Writers of the Future, All Smiles Writing Contest, and has been featured in Writers and Readers’ Magazine, Blank Cover Press, Pocket Fiction Magazine, Synkroniciti Magazine, Across the Margin Magazine, Adelaide Literary Magazine, and other journals and anthologies.
NOTE: Dru Richman's story does not appear in the anthology
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