ART
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1st Place: "Stoop Kid"-William Aliou
"The photographer’s special effects are very intriguing as the artist views
the stoop kid in multiple situations in the same picture. The images makes
you question what are the stoop kids intentions or feelings. Does he have
his head up against the wall? Is he looking right at you or gazing into the sun?
Or is he just on a stoop trying to figure out his future? It seems that both
windows and doors are blocking his way into a place he could call home. Makes you question his desire to live as the shadow on the building reflects the image of a hanging. Although there is nobody causing the shadow. Hoping just a fleeting thought and the brightness of the sun in the lead pose can pull him out of that darkness. Over all the piece really gets your mind wondering."
2nd Place: "Caterpillar"-Samantha DeMarco
"At first glance, I thought this was a dandelion ready to shed her seeds.
With a closer and much clearer view as taken artistically by the
photographer the close details of a caterpillar emerge. While both a
caterpillar and a dandelion have their own unique cycle of life they do
have similarities in looks as found through the eye of this artist.
Very beautifully done."
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3rd Place: "Pretty Kitty"-Samantha DeMarco
"This photo 'caught my eye' because of the crystal clear eyes of this cat. The photo catches the cat and it’s gaze upward with precise clarity. With the twinkle in its eyes, we wonder what he might be thinking. Maybe the gaze might be focused on a bird in a tree, or at the tender face of its master while waiting to be fed. Or who knows, maybe up at the master of all the universe. Regardless of his direction, it is clear
that he’s pondering his next move. The composition with the eyes place just above the centerline gives strength to the movement Of the scene. A beautiful catch indeed."
-Sue Murphy, 2020
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Editor's Choice:
"Burnside Resort" (cover/header)-William Aliou
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SUE MURPHY is a local artist with over 30 years of experience in the fine arts. She is currently the elementary school art teacher for grades K-8 at Holy Trinity School in Wallingford and also conducts paint parties, private art lessons, and does commission pieces on the side. She has been an art instructor for over 20 years and prior to that, Sue worked as a graphic artist for seven years. She was also the founder of a small non-profit art organization, The Artists Loft, Inc. (2010-2014) where they provided art instruction to students of all ages and encouraged them to donate their creations to others. Her passion and love of the arts keeps her active in the community and well-known as an expert in the field.
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KAT LEE crawled out of a dumpster wearing a bandana and a motorcycle jacket with preternatural writing abilities.
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FICTION
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1st Place: "Blood Moon"-Kat Lee
"What struck me most here was the writer’s grasp of story structure: the first lines are a starter pistol and the rest of the story is perfectly paced. The ending is that elusive combination of surprising and inevitable: I didn’t know she was going to drive away, but once she does I saw that was really the only true outcome. The structure is a matter of picking the right series of moments, but also about character arc, and I like how this narrator moves from cozying up in bed with the guy who just put a gun in her face (“Max sighs, curling up against me, and burying his face against my ribs”) to finally abdicating her role as a mother figure to this hopeless man-child (his character perfectly embodied at the moment he refuses to look at the moon). The writing is taut, the voice confident. Well done."
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2nd Place: "The Harvest"-Miranda Kross
"Oh my goodness, I love this story. This story excites me. I wanted to yank the sleeve of the person next to me and read them passages: “She would spend the next two days cooped up in a wood-paneled dorm room, full of football players and cans of vodka seltzers, stand on the pube-lined shower floor in an attempt to get clean, and sleep on the twin-sized mattress crammed between the wall and his two hundred and ten-pound body. At first, she was sure of what drove her to endure these things. Love, right? But as the weeks passed, and the mites stripped more and more of her away, she found herself needing to fill those blank spaces with him.” Yes! People have been churning out metaphors for love for all of human history, and this story manages to find a new one. I love a speculative piece that flirts with the allegorical but retains the power to surprise. The concept is great, the attention to detail stunning. If the plot were a slightly less straight line, if our heroine’s fate were not a done deal at every point along the way (even if she’s still doomed in the end), this story could be published anywhere."
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3rd Place: "Strip Mine"-Mari Spallone
"This story has a lot going on, and the author effectively uses a third-person attached perspective to show us that our main character thinks he knows what kind of journey he’s on, only to realize that he’s following the wrong plotline. It’s not the road trip or the Neo-Nazis. The call is coming from inside the house, so to speak. I liked how this writer kept the physical world present throughout: I never lost track of who and where the characters were from moment to moment. The conflict between Mark and his father is embodied rather than explained, and there are lovely images of anxiety and isolation throughout: “It reminded Mark of his childhood bedroom when he couldn’t sleep—so quiet he could hear the minutes advancing from the mantle clock downstairs.”
-Sarah Wallman, 2020
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Editor's Choice: "Comfort in Discomfort: The Effects of Embracing Vulnerability"-Genevieve Jaser
"This honest reflection of what it means to become vulnerable to discomfort gets right to the point: we need to open up as individuals and a society and learn to feel OK about the unfamiliar. Jaser’s non-fiction piece lays out the problem at the start and spends the rest of the time working, almost as a case study through anecdotal and researched methods, to understand why over half of Americans say they aren’t happy. Her story skips all the cliché and misguided sayings that ‘happiness’ experts have spewed over the years and lets the reader know that it is actually up to them to break away from the mold and quit conforming to the jaded norm. Jaser writes that often the happiness we do obtain is, “happiness that is supplied from others,” and she lets us know that if we are able to rid ourselves of these societal insecurities and become comfortable with the who we are as individuals, strange or not, we may be able to forge our way toward happier lives."
-Max Vadakin, 2020
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SARAH HARRIS WALLMAN teaches writing at Albertus Magnus College, where she is the co-director of the MFA. Her work has won awards from Prada and the Tucson Festival of Books. Publisher's Weekly calls her short story collection Senseless Women (winner of the 2019 Juniper Prize) "bewitching and macabre." She is originally from Nashville, TN.
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MAX VADAKIN is a senior (citizen) English major and film minor at Southern. Known as “Maddog” to many and as “Ice” to his parole officer and many federal databases, Max thinks of himself as a lonely bachelor with a heart of gold, even if his mother has labeled him as “not approachable”. After he graduates, Max plans on continuing to remain alive for as long as he possibly can in an attempt to break the world record of oldest living person to hold onto their 401(k).
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POETRY
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1st Place: "Hunting"-Genevieve Jaser
"There is a stunning craftsmanship in the construction of this poem. I most admire the extended metaphor, how the poem moves outward from the fallen prey of his body, to the speaker, gun in hand, confessing their role in the drama—the “lint and prickers” of unfaithfulness. This poem revels in visceral imagery—the “raw and mangled” power of language. Likewise, the extended metaphor runs parallel to the speaker’s conceit, one who turns inward and confessional as the metaphor moves outward—culminating in that truly brutal final acknowledgment that hits not unlike a bullet."
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2nd Place: "X-ray"-Nina Bartlomiejczyk
"Three questions. That’s all it takes for this poem to indict me and convince me of its utter necessity. Using direct address, it becomes a tour of the body, external and internal, with moving parts—“my bones are brittle”— both physical and emotional under constant pressure throughout. I’m reeling at the irony of that last line, the violence that resonates still."
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3rd Place: "Eulogy of His Little Odessa House"-Karlyn Jackson
"This then must be the extinction of place: the physical collapse amid the dissolution of memories. I admire how the speaker stands as a witness to loss, with a quiet, not quite objective voice through which the barest sentiment shows. It is enough, and finally, it is heartbreaking."
-Timothy Geiger, 2020
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Editor's Choice: "The Crumb People"-Christopher Buckridge
"'The Crumb People' is a fantastical depiction of what it's like to live as abused members of the working class. The poem is balanced in its weirdness and emotional range, crafting the metaphorical Crumb People who do all they can to scrounge up the crumbs of others to survive. The poet conveys the evils of classism through a conflict between the Crumb People, who are greedy with their meals and refuse to share. The anaphoric lines 'no bridge/no pride/no feasting/no cake for Crumb People' reveal how mistreated they are in a beautifully crafted, heartbreaking portrayal of reality in the United States."
-Steff Sirois, 2020
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TIMOTHY GEIGER is the author of the poetry collection Weatherbox, winner of the 2019 Vern Rutsala Poetry Prize from Cloudbank Books. He has also published two other full-length collections, The Curse of Pheromones (Main Street Rag) and Blue Light Factory (Spoon River Poetry Press) and nine chapbooks, most recently, Radium (Cabaret Press). He is the proprietor of the literary fine-press Aureole Press at the University of Toledo, where he teaches creative writing, poetry, and letterpress printing. Currently, he is a finalist for the position of Poet Laureate for the State of Ohio.
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STEFF SIROIS is a senior English major with a concentration in creative writing. In addition to crafting short stories and the occasional poem, she’s also passionate about coffee, natural history, Canadian comedies, and exploring new places. Her favorite kind of poem has weird, lucid details that are indicative of an equally weird and emotionally honest writer.
