Mary Mackey Short Story Prize Category
First Prize: $100
Second Prize: $50
Third Prize: $25
Category Details
Up to 4,000 words. One story per entry. I am looking for well-crafted stories that are original and compelling. The story must demonstrate a mastery of and love for the English language. It must move, not wallow. The characters need to be vivid, the dialogue convincing. Above all, something must happen. This need not be a grand event, but some change must take place: an event, a revelation, or perhaps an insight. Please do not submit your story until you have polished and revised it multiple times. A great short story changes the reader. I look forward to being changed.
About Judge/Sponsor
MARY MACKEY (Berkeley/Sacramento, CA) Her published works consist of fourteen novels, including The Village of Bones: Sabalah’s Tale, The Year the Horses Came, and The Widow’s War (San Francisco Chronicle bestseller); and eight collections of poetry including Sugar Zone, winner of the 2012 PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award for Literary Excellence; and The Jaguars That Prowl Our Dreams, winner of the 2019 Eric Hoffer Award for the Best Book Published by a Small Press, and a 2018 Women’s Spirituality Book Award from the California Institute of Integral Studies. Mackey’s books have sold over a million and a half copies and been translated into twelve foreign languages including Japanese, Hebrew, Russian, and Finnish. A screenwriter as well as a novelist, she has sold feature scripts to Warner Brothers as well as to various independent film companies. Mackey was one of the founders of the Graduate and Undergraduate Creative Writing Programs at California State University, Sacramento, where, for many years, she taught Creative Writing and Film. She occasionally writes fiction comedy under the pen name Kate Clemens.
Judge’s Websites
2020 Winners
- First Prize: Robert B. Robeson of Lincoln, NE
“A Vietnamese Farewell Letter” - Second Prize: Andrea Hansell of Rockville, MD
“Dia de Los Muertos” - Third Prize: Ellie Anderson of Bellevue, WA
“One Night in Smelterville”
2020 Honorable Mentions (in alphabetical order)
Francis M. Flavin of Sparks, NV for “The Stain of Absolution”
Joan F. Prebilich of Santa Cruz, CA for “The Skaeland Iceman”
T. L. Sherwood of Springville, NY for “The High Wire Act”
Steve Wiegenstein of Columbia, MO for “Magic Kids”