Announcing the Winner of This Year’s Ryan R. Gibbs Flash Fiction Contest Judged by Mary Miller:
Eshani Surya will receive $400 and her flash fiction “Between Colitis Flares, Expect The Following Symptoms:” will be featured in our Winter issue launching December 9th. Her piece is part of a series she is working on called “Merck Manual, Revised.” Mary Miller selected the piece as the winner with the following statement:
“Eshani Surya has captured what it means to have an uncooperative body. There is no way to escape our bodies—at some point, each of us will be “the patient”—but if you are a young person with a recurring illness, a new language is learned: of lost friends and secret keeping, reading the colors on a tissue; there are thoughts like “I’ve done enough, this next time…if I need to die, I’ll be satisfied.” But even the healthiest among us have wondered her real question, her final question: is it only the healthy and uncomplicated parts of us that can be loved?”
We were stunned by the force of this piece and the questions it left us with. We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to share it with you all soon.
Congratulations also to our fabulous finalists whose work dazzled and spit. Our runner up, Gleah Powers, will also have her piece published in our Winter issue:
- Gleah Powers – “In the Valley of the Sun” (runner up)
- Cady Vishniac – “Becky and the Devil in an Act of Creative Destruction”
- Amir Adam – “In Series”
- David Queen – “A Man in the House”
and to our honorable mentions:
- Jane Renaud – “A Tangle of Rope”
- Matthew Woodman – “Three in the Morning”
- Kate Simonian – “Witness”
About our contest:
For the Ryan R Gibbs Flash Fiction Contest, New Delta Review seeks fiction of 1500 words or less that stun. We look for a full narrative in a small package, where every sentence contributes something necessary and integral to the whole. As our 2015 judge Ander Monson stated, “What [we] really want is to be surprised by something forceful and bent to its will.”
See our past winners and judges here.
Judge: Mary Miller
Prize: $400 and publication in the Winter Issue of NDR. All entries will be considered for publication and eligible for our annual Matt Clark Editor’s Prize of $250.
Deadline: October 15, 2016 (extended deadline)
Entry Fee: $10
Submit here.
Additional Submission Guidelines:
- All entries must be previously unpublished and original work of the entrant.
- Each entry must be accompanied by an entry fee.
- Maximum two separate entries per entrant.
- All work must be submitted through Submittable.
- Submissions will first be read by the staff of New Delta Review, and finalists will be passed on for judging.
- Family, friends, and previous students of the judge are ineligible for participation in the contest. Current students and faculty of LSU are ineligible.
MARY MILLER is the author of a novel, The Last Days of California, and two story collections: Big World and Always Happy Hour. Her fiction has appeared in New Stories from the South, McSweeney’s Quarterly, American Short Fiction, Mississippi Review, and many others. She is a former James A. Michener Fellow at the University of Texas and John and Renée Grisham Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi.
She lives in Gulfport, Mississippi.
About Ryan R. Gibbs: This award is in honor of Ryan R. Gibbs (1981-2012), a gifted editor for New Delta Review, an incredible writer of fiction and screenplays, a talented photographer, and, above all, a dear friend. New Delta Review is honored to host this annual award in his honor, made possible by a generous endowment from his parents.