The editors are pleased to announce that Fiction Judge Nicholas Montemarano has chosen Landon Houle’s story “There You Are” as this year’s Fiction Prize Winner in the Dogwood Literary Prize. Ms. Houle will receive $1,000 and her story will be published in Dogwood’s 2018 edition. Finalists for the prize were John Blair, David DeGusta, and Rick Krizman, each of whose stories will also appear in Dogwood 2018, due out in late May.
Judge Nicholas Montemarano said about Houle’s story that “its strong voice is evident—you can hear it—in the opening sentences, and continues for 18 never-dull pages. I love that this writer grounded the story in scenes—something I’m often reminding myself to do. Dramatize. Bring the reader into moments and allow characters to show up who they really are. The story felt new and refreshing—not only its voice but its unusual situation.”
Landon Houle’s collection of linked stories, Living Things, is the 2017 winner of the Red Hen Press Fiction Award and is set for publication in 2019. Her writing has won contests at Black Warrior Review, Crab Creek Review, and Permafrost. Other work has appeared in Baltimore Review, Crazyhorse, Natural Bridge, Harpur Palate, River Styx, and elsewhere. She is the fiction editor at Raleigh Review, and she teaches English and creative writing at Francis Marion University in Florence, South Carolina.
Judge Nicholas Montemarano is the author of three novels, A Fine Place, The Book of Why, and, most recently, The Senator’s Children. He has also published a short story collection, If the Sky Falls, a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice. His stories have been published in Esquire, Tin House, Zoetrope, and many other magazines. His fiction has been awarded a Pushcart Prize and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. He is professor of English at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, PA. Nichaolas Montemarano is a 1992 graduate of Fairfield University.
Preorder Dogwood 2018 at this link.
Dogwood: A Journal of Poetry and Prose 