Sunday, June 18, 2006

Confluence

I've entered a fair number of literary contests in the last few months, as these contests seem to have arisen everywhere and present one avenue of publication, not to mention fame and/or fortune. I was a finalist in a good contest last month, and a semi-finalist (whatever that means in this context) in another. But upon collecting my mail this morning, after my trip to Indiana, I learned I had won the Fiction Prize of Confluence magazine, for my story "Stonewall." The prize is a small check (enclosed with the announcement letter) and publication.

The magazine is not terribly well-known, and the prize is small, but I'm quite pleased nonetheless. I like the story very much, too, but I feel that I've already moved beyond it so I'm glad that it has a home. I submitted it to a few other places--some pretty nice magazines--so I'll need to carefully withdraw the piece from places like Quarterly West and Swink, who've had eight months to make up their minds.

I'm looking forward to seeing "Stonewall" in print.

4 comments:

katrina said...

Congrats, Cliff!!

Anonymous said...

Fantastic news - congrats.

Dan W. - EWN

Mary Akers said...

I am so happy Stonewall has a home. I know we aren't supposed to have favorites, but...

Unknown said...

Thanks, all! Mary, given what happens to poor Stonewall in the story, I wasn't sure anyone would ever take it . . .