Press 53 2009 Open Awards Anthology

This is the second year of this anthology which features poetry, flash fiction, short-short story, short story, genre fiction, creative nonfiction, young writers, and novella. There is a total of 28 works from 21 authors and the editor proudly points out in his introduction that entries came from 32 states and eight foreign countries. Two of the winners were from overseas: Jerusalem, Israel and Bogotá, Columbia. All judging was done blind.

This is the second year of this anthology which features poetry, flash fiction, short-short story, short story, genre fiction, creative nonfiction, young writers, and novella. There is a total of 28 works from 21 authors and the editor proudly points out in his introduction that entries came from 32 states and eight foreign countries. Two of the winners were from overseas: Jerusalem, Israel and Bogotá, Columbia. All judging was done blind.

The poetry is consistently excellent. Here is the last half of the submission by Malaika Albrecht entitled “On Your Birth Day”:

A mask
on my face, I’m adrift, bobbing
on a huge bed in a sea
of activity. Push. I can’t
remember what the word
means. I think push, gush
rush – the sounds of water.
I hear a gurgle
and then a wet cry. This is how
it feels to spill the whole of you –
an ocean wave –
that knocks me back to shore.

My favorite prose offering was “Sarajevo Roses” by Kirk Barrett, the winner of the short-short story prize. It concerns a battle for this former Yugoslavian town and is told with grim realism: “They write that the snipers in the hills surrounding our beautiful city of collapse and ruin get paid per target. Extra for children. One sniper who was interviewed by a French reporter – rebroadcast on B92 – told of how he relished seeing the expression on a mother’s face when her daughter, standing next to her, is shot.” The author manages to inject sardonic humor also, and one of the main characters is a 70-plus year-old man who likes to collect bed sheets. Why? That’s the focus of the story.

Two other engaging stories are “Crawl On Out” by Sylvia Lynch and “Monster” by Ray Morrison. The former concerns a tough guy who smokes a lot and fights a lot but rarely speaks and his relationship with a teenager who doesn’t like fighting at all. “Monster” is about – guess what? – a terrible monster who lives near “a tiny village in a far off country, where the towns had unpronounceable names” The villagers try to keep the monster – if he’s there at all – happy by feeding him one of their own – an elderly person not thrilled with the arrangement – and the monster reciprocates by . . . well, read it and have a good chuckle.

I would be remiss if I did not mention the three young writers featured in this anthology: Beckett Bathanti, Clara Fannjiang, and Alice Hall-Partyka, all in high school and all displaying considerable talent for their young ages. Beckett, who garnered first prize for his story, “The Return,” demonstrates knowledge beyond his years with the opening lines:

She lived alone these days. She found solace in photo albums filled with pictures from another life and the nightly thunderstorms that roared across the plains like a clamoring water demon that uprooted her flowers and sent the dog, tail between legs, to huddle beneath the bed. The next morning she coaxed him out with kind words and beef jerky . . . If you could have asked the dog, he would have assured you that she was an angel.

This anthology comes out on a yearly basis and submissions for the 2010 anthology are open until January 31. The website features various events going on including a writer’s cruise in September.