2012 edition
The final selection was carried out by Steve Almond, author, journalist, blogger, teacher, and DIY publishing devotee, is the author of five books of fiction and five books of non-fiction. God Bless America: Stories, his most recent book, tackles issues of race, class, warfare, and fame in America with wit and sensitive provocation. He is a two time Pushcart prize winner. His book, Candyfreak: A Journey Through the Chocolate Underbelly of America was an Alex Award Winner in 2005. His short stories have appeared in Tin House, Southern Review, New England Review, and Virginia Review. He is a regular contributor to the Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Utne Reader, The Sun, Bitch Magazine, Huffington Post, Babble.com, and Nerve.com. He lives in Arlington, Massachusetts.
The titles in this edition are:
The Blanket Plucker by Margarite Landry (judge’s selection)
After Ararat by Steve Fayer
Parlor Trick by Steve Lavender
Coming Down from Graceland by Ryan Kelly
We Want to See You Hide by Steve Drum
Claire, Home Again by Milly Heller
Time Until There Isn’t by Danielle Vermette (top story by an Oregon-based writer)
A Brasilia Christmas by Elisa Wouk Almino
Deadman by Daniel Tierney
Shape of Desire by Q Lindsey Barrett
You can read 2012′s top story by an Oregon-based writer, Time Until There Isn’t by Danielle Vermette, in the October 2012 issue of Portland Monthly.
2011 edition
The final selection was carried out by Aimee Bender. She is the author of four books: The Girl in the Flammable Skirt (1998) which was a NY Times Notable Book, An Invisible Sign of My Own (2000) which was an L.A. Times pick of the year, Willful Creatures (2005) which was nominated by The Believer as one of the best books of the year, and The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake (2010) which recently won the SCIBA award for best fiction and an Alex Award. Her short fiction ha been published in Granta, GQ, Harper’s, Tin House, McSweeney’s, The Paris Review, and many more places, as well as heard on PRI’s This American Life and Selected Shorts. Her fiction has been translated into sixteen languages. She lives in Los Angeles, where she teaches creative writing at USC.
The titles in this edition are:
There is a Certain Kind of Woman by Monona Wali (judge’s selection)
Night Train by Steven Bieler
A Marriage by Enid Harlow
The Bear by Susan Kirby-Smith
Joe and the Presidents by Bob Mayo
The Tsunami Garden by Annemarie Neary
The RIng by Marc Nieson
Dues by Mark Pomeroy
Mayo! God Help Us by Gemma Whelan
The Heart of Things by Kirk Wilson
You can read 2011′s winner, There was a Certain Kind of Woman by Monona Wali, in the October 2011 issue of Portland Monthly.
2010 edition
The final selection was carried out by Charles D’Ambrosio. He is a Pacific Northwest writer whose stories have appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Zoetrope All-Story, and A Public Space. His work has been widely anthologized and selected for the Pushcart Prize, Best American Short Stories, and the O. Henry Award. His first book was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award, and his most recent collection, The Dead Fish Museum, was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award. Among other awards, he has been the recipient of A Whiting Writer’s Award and an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He recently received a Lannan Literary Fellowship.
The titles in this edition are:
Grass at My Feet by Gretchen Flesher Duggan (judge’s selection)
Uninvited Guests by Vanessa M. Blakeslee
For the Whole Family by Bridget Brewer
Midnight Man by James Gish
The Snatcher by Jason LaPier
The Knot by Lori Ostlund
Corpus Christi by J. Paul Sandefur
Hisae by Jason Skipper
Mail Order by Marissa Tinloy
On Myth and Mortality by Amanda Wochele
2009 edition
The final selection was carried out by Barry Lopez. He is author of Arctic Dreams, for which he received the National Book Award; Of Wolves and Men, a National Book Award finalist for which he received the John Burroughs and Christopher medals; and eight works of fiction, including Light Action in the Caribbean, Field Notes, and Resistance. His Essays are collected in two books, Crossing Open Ground and About This Life. He contributes regularly to Granta, The Georgia Review, Orion, Outside, The Paris Review, Manoa, and other publications in the United States and abroad. His work has appeared in dozens of anthologies, including Best American Essays, Best Spiritual Writing and the “best” collections from National Geographic, Outside, The Georgia Review, The Paris Review, and other periodicals. His most recent book is Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape, a reader’s dictionary of regional landscape terms, which he edited with Debra Gwartney.
The titles in this edition are:
The Grocery Store Cart by Marian Pierce (judge’s selection)
Tending the Garden by Elise Atchinson
Jesus Surfs by Vanessa M. Blakeslee
The Laws of Motion by Emma Bolden
A Fool and Love by E.J. Clinton
Leave Me by M. M. De Voe
The Moments Before William Realizes the Humiliation That His Life Is by William Huberdeau
Power Walking by Heather McDonald
Coupons by Erik Sakariassen
Robbing the Rexall by Traci Schatz
2008 edition
The final selection was carried out by Ursula K. Le Guin. She is the author of seven books of poetry, twenty-two novels, over a hundred short stories (collected in eleven volumes), four collections of essays, twelve books for children, and four volumes of translation. Three of her books have been finalists for the American Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize, and she is a recipient of the National Book Award, five Hugo Awards, five Nebula Awards, SFWA’s Grand Master, the Kafka Award, a Pushcart Prize, the Howard Vursell Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the LA Times Robert Kirsch Award, the PEN/Malamud Award, the Margaret A. Edwards Award, and others. Her recent publications include Incredible Good Fortune: New Poems (Shambhala 2006); Voices (Harcourt, September 2006), and Powers (Harcourt, September 2007); and Lavinia (Harcourt, April 2008).
The titles in this edition are:
Calendar Girl Arrested, Freed by Kurt Rheinheimer (first prize)
The Sunbather by Brendan Kerr (second prize)
Buried Dinner by Gregory Loselle (third prize)
Zagharoot by Linda Barnhart
Looks Like Newsprint by Danya Bush
My Father Moves Through Time Like a Dirigible by Gregg Cusick
You Must Remember This by Norton Girault
Voices of the Doomed by James Gish, Jr.
The Albatross by Jendi Reiter
The Way Home by Lones Seiber
2007 edition
The final selection was carried out by Diana Abu-Jaber. She is the author of Origin (2007); Crescent (2003), which was awarded the 2004 PEN Center USA Award for Literary Fiction, the Before Columbus Foundation’s American Book Award and was named one of the twenty best novels of 2003 by The Christian Science Monitor; and Arabian Jazz (1993), which won the 1994 Oregon Book Award and was nominated for the PEN/Faulkner Award. She teaches at Portland State University and divides her time between Portland and Miami. More information about Diana Abu-Jaber and her other books and writings can be found at www.dianaabujaber.com
The titles in this edition are:
The Creek by Joshua Michael Riedel (first prize)
Little Herons by K.Fan
Call Me Ishmael by Jacob Aiello
Social Security by Pamela Rentz (second prize)
Ours, All Of It by Matthew Korfhage
Dessert by Tina M. Ontiveros
Thor by Rachel Sims
Reprieve by Samantha Hudson
Corinth Behind the Counter by Jennifer Springsteen (third prize)
Minor Theatre by Margaret Malone