This year’s pool of applications for the Kathy Fish Fellowship, more than 250 of them, were truly fantastic. Our editors were humbled by the talent we saw in the stories sent to us.
As we narrowed the applications down to our top 11 finalists, we realized we had a problem–they were all really really good. In a time when some journals or organizations sometimes say they can’t find a good enough submission to declare a winner, we had the opposite problem–it was nearly impossible to choose just one winner.
So we didn’t.
One of the reasons why I really love our staff at SmokeLong is that they truly care about the writers that submit to us and that we publish. So when this problem arose, we all came up with a solution: award two winners. So we found more money to award, and that’s exactly what we did.
Adam Peterson
I’m very pleased to announce that Adam Peterson is our grand prize winner of the Kathy Fish Fellowship. Adam will receive $500 and publication in all of our next four issues. Adam is the co-editor of The Cupboard, and the author of The Flasher, My Untimely Death, and, with Laura Eve Engel, [SPOILER ALERT]. His short fiction can be found in The Kenyon Review, Indiana Review, The Normal School, The Southern Review, and elsewhere. Originally from Nebraska, he currently lives in Houston, Texas.
Megan Giddings
Our runner-up, who will be awarded $300 and publication in all of our next four issues, is Megan Giddings. Megan will be attending Indiana University’s MFA Program in the fall. She has most recently been published in the Doctor TJ Eckleburg Review and Knee-Jerk.
Both of these writers demonstrated original, fresh writing in all of the stories they sent to us. We are thrilled to work with them over the next year and have them both as writers-in-residence at SmokeLong. Look for stories by each of them over the next year.
In addition, we want to again thank all of the people who sent us applications and made our job really freaking hard.
We’d like to acknowledge our nine finalists:
- Matthew Burnside
- Leesa Cross-Smith
- Steven Edwards
- Becky Adnot-Haynes
- Freda Love Smith
- Steven Kowalski
- Callie Collins
- Emily Haymans
- Lindsey Drager
Congratulations to all again!
SmokeLong Quarterly 
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