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Contest Judge Cheryl Klein chose Colbert's story, "The Man Who Jumped," for the First Prize, noting "I found it chilling
in places, and sad, and hopeful in the quietest way. I also liked how the writer brought a whole world of events into the
world of the story."
Jaimee Wriston Colbert, originally from Hawaii, is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at SUNY, Binghamton University.
Dream Lives of Butterflies, which won the gold medal (first place) in the 2008 Independent Publisher Awards (Short
Stories Fiction category), was a Finalist in the USABookNews Book of the Year Awards, and made the Kansas City Star
Top 100 Books of the Year list. Her novel, Climbing the God Tree, won the Willa Cather Fiction Prize; and the fiction
collection Sex, Salvation, and the Automobile, won the Zephyr Publishing Prize. A forthcoming story in Isotope
won the 2009 Editors' Fiction Prize. A new novel, Shark Girls, is coming up from Livingston Press in November, 2009.
Simone Martel's story, "Stretch Marks," was cited by the judge, who said, "I liked the confident voice in
this story, and the protagonist's ultimate comfort in choosing boundaries and She is the author of a linked stories collection,
maturity over the romance of youthful chaos."
"Coconut," by Jocelyn Johnson, according to Klein, presents ". . . a good twist on a somewhat familiar premise--Shauna's
internalized racism, mixed with envy, was interesting and believable."
The other finalists in the contest are:
"Good Neighbors," by Pat Spears, Tallahasee, FL;
"Sostenuto," by Kathryn Shaver, Louisville, KY;
"In Lillian's Arms," by Nika Cavat, Venice, CA;
"Steer 'Round Potholes & Ice Slicks," by Phyllis Jean Green, Chapel Hill, NC;
"Reconciliation," by Inez Holger, Jacksonville, FL;
"Tomatoes," by Yolanda Nieves, Chicago, IL; and
"Getting Ms. Berry on Board," by Lynn Veach Sadler, Sanford, NC.
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