Dr. Olaf Kroneman and Patricia Schultheis, winners of the 2013 Sports Fiction & Essay Contest
This was the strongest group of submissions we've seen in several years...The best entries moved back and forth with symphonic grace between total immersion in the high-stakes moment and the nostalgic long view of aging and change.
Northampton, MA (PRWEB) November 15, 2013
Winning Writers is pleased to announce the results from its 2013 Sports Fiction & Essay Contest. Dr. Olaf Kroneman of Birmingham, MI won first prize for fiction for his story "Fight Night". Patricia Schultheis of Baltimore, MD won first prize for nonfiction for her essay "Skating to Seventy". Each received $1,000.
"Fight Night", a noir tale of a Mafia-owned boxing club, centers on an unusual doctor-patient relationship, through which we see compromised men still trying to live by their peculiar codes of honor. "Skating to Seventy", a poetic journey through a woman's life, traces what ice-skating meant to the author as she navigated a difficult childhood, changing roles for women, a long marriage and widowhood.
In fiction, Billy Wayne Coakley of Pittsburgh, PA won second prize and $250 for "Muay-Thai". In this tense, painfully beautiful story, a martial arts prodigy battles for her future, but her greatest opponent is her own body as it changes from child to woman. In nonfiction, Adrian Cole of Yarmouth, ME won second prize and $250 for "Boston You're My Home", a soldier's tribute to Red Sox Nation. Struggling with PTSD that was exacerbated by the April 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, the returning veteran finds that the camaraderie of baseball fandom is the key to his healing.
The contest received 371 entries from around the world. They were judged by Jendi Reiter, award-winning author of the poetry collections Barbie at 50 (Cervena Barva Press, 2010), Swallow (Amsterdam Press, 2009), and A Talent for Sadness (Turning Point Books, 2003), and Ellen LaFleche, an accomplished writer and editor whose publications include the prizewinning poetry collections Ovarian (Dallas Poets Community, 2011) and Workers' Rites (Philbrick Poetry Award Series, Providence Athenaeum, 2011).
The judges said, "This was the strongest group of submissions we've seen in several years of judging Winning Writers contests. It motivated us to add $500 more to the prize pool than we advertised...A consistent theme that emerged was sport as a lens through which to study the passage of time. The best entries moved back and forth with symphonic grace between total immersion in the high-stakes moment and the nostalgic long view of aging and change."
Ten honorable mention awards of $100 brought the total prizes to $3,500. Read the winning entries online.
About the Sports Fiction & Essay Contest
Launched by Winning Writers in 2012, this contest seeks the best creative writing on the theme of sports. Submissions are accepted from November 15, 2013 through May 31, 2014. The prize pool is $3,000, including two first prizes of $1,000 each for fiction and essays. Previously published work will now be eligible in addition to unpublished work. Entries are accepted online. The entry fee is $16 for each story or essay, maximum 6,000 words. For more information, please see http://www.winningwriters.com/sports.
About Winning Writers, Inc.
Winning Writers finds and creates quality resources for poets and writers. Our free email newsletter provides over 45,000 subscribers with profiles of the best free literary contests. We sponsor four annual contests of our own: the Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest, the Sports Fiction & Essay Contest, the Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction & Essay Contest and the Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest. We are proud to have been selected as one of the "101 Best Websites for Writers" by Writer's Digest for nine years running (2005-2013). Learn more at WinningWriters.com and follow us on Twitter at @winningwriters.
