Kallisto Gaia Press is pleased to announce Gordon Brown as the winner of the Chester B. Himes Memorial Short Fiction Contest. His story, Some Kind of Animal, will be published in the winter 2020 edition of The Ocotillo Review. Mr. Brown will receive $1000 and a two year subscription to Duotrope. Michael Noll judged and had this to say about the winning story:
“Some Kind of Animal” accomplishes the essential writing trick of getting off to a fast start and also giving a sense of history to that start. Like so much great horror, this story starts with a familiar setting, in this case, the microaggressions that so many people of color face in white neighborhoods, the constant questioning of whether they belong. And then the story defamiliarizes the setting and situation in stages: Maybe the main character isn’t who we think he is. Maybe the critters are not what we think they are. And, finally, maybe both are different than even the versions we’ve imagined. Great fiction surprises its readers, even when they are looking for the surprise, and “Some Kind of Animal” truly surprises with its killer last sentence.
The Runner-up is Jay Stark for his story, Look and Listen. Mr. Stark will receive $100 and publication in The Ocotillo Review. In commenting on the story, Michael Noll said:
When you establish a great narrative voice, there’s so much leeway that readers are ready to grant you. Story takes a while to kick into gear? No problem. With a great narrative voice, so much of the appeal is like the appeal of listening to an interesting uncle or aunt at Thanksgiving: the narrator simply talking about the things in his or her life. “Look and Listen,” makes us privy to the narrator’s opinions and impressions of so much that is not the story that when the story creeps up on us, we’re genuinely surprised. And, the story gains greater impact because we’ve gained an appreciation for the fine textures of the narrator’s life. He’s no longer a stranger to us, and so what happens to him matters.
