Indie It Press is excited to announce the winners of the Summer Short Story Writing Contest. A special shoutout to thank our preliminary Judges: Britt Laux and Stephanie Rinaldi. They had a difficult task bringing the submissions down to the Top 10. Thank you both for your enthusiasm around this contest. We couldn’t do this without our readers/judges! They truly enjoyed reading so many varied works, and are curious to see Literary Agent Elizabeth Copps’s picks.
Congratulations to all submitters to this contest! It was a tight one!
Here is what Elizabeth Copps said about the strong and difficult to rank submissions:
“You weren’t kidding; this was nearly impossible to rank! Absolutely gorgeous work from these writers. I truly enjoyed each piece.”
Elizabeth Copps, Literary Agent
Thank you, Elizabeth, for taking the time to read and rank for us. We at Indie It Press appreciate your passion for reading new works and finding new writers!
Submitters, way to go working toward defeating imposter syndrome!
Over the next few weeks, we will publish the winning Top Five Summer Short Story pieces, so keep an eye out for each one as they are fantastic.
1st Place: Erica Sage, STARLING – $300 Prize Winner
Erica Sage is an author and English teacher who lives in Washington State with her family. When not reading and writing, she loves to hike and garden. Her debut young adult novel JACKED UP was published by Sky Pony Press. Her adult short story “The Collector” was featured in the anthology XVIII (Eighteen), published by Underland Press. You can find her in the trees, or on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.
2nd Place: Jordan Nishkian, IN THE VOID – $200 Prize Winner
Jordan Nishkian is an Armenian-Portuguese writer based in California. Her work has been published in Overachiever Magazine, The Kelp Journal, the New Plains Review, The Yellow Arrow Journal, The Plentitudes, and more. She is the Editor-in-Chief of Mythos literary magazine and has recently published her first novella.
3rd Place: Shannan Chapman, TWO BRIDGES – $100 Prize Winner
Shannan is a writer, a mother, grandmother and wife who lives in Tucson, AZ. Besides writing, she loves red wine. And cold beer on a hot summer day. With chips and guacamole. Oh and travel. And reading. And cake. Chocolate cake. Which is why she’s always on a diet. She says a perfect day would be: “me, on a plane on my way to Guatemala, drinking wine and eating chocolate cake while listening to a relaxing playlist. And when I arrive, I am whisked away to Lake Atitlan where there awaits delicious food and a cold Gallo beer. And the friends I have made there.”
4th Place: Zira MacFarlane, BLACK WATER – $50 Prize Winner
Zira MacFarlane is a nonbinary queer biologist who lives in Toronto with a small menagerie of cats, geckos, and humans. They are an amateur writer, and love using horror and fantasy to explore ecological themes and stories of queer love and pain. In the wild, they can be found storytelling, birdwatching, and trying to discover the latest mischief their cats have caused.
5th Place: Leanne Su, BLUE RASPBERRY – $25 Prize Winner
Leanne Su is a second-generation Chinese American woman from Seattle, WA. She is currently a Ph.D. student in aerospace engineering at the University of Michigan where she researches electric propulsion. When she\’s not breaking or fixing thrusters, she’s usually embroidering, swimming, or taking cursed pictures of her cat Pudge. You can find her on Instagram @its.lean or on the world wide web at leanne.space.
Honorable Mentions:
Placing 6th: Stephen Mills, THE GRASSMARKET BUTCHER
Four Honorable Mentions (in no particular order):
BLUE LAKE by Clara Olivo
BROWN OWL by Michelene Esposito
SNAPSHOT by Thomas Leventhal
THE LIVING BUILDINGS by E.M. Barker
Again, Congratulations to all of our winners!
Upcoming Contests:
Check out our Ghost & Horror Short Story & Spooky Image Contests on our contest page.
Within a couple of weeks we will be announcing our anthology and contests around the anthology theme. All winners of the Napkin Microfiction Contest and Summer Short Story Contest will be in this anthology early 2022.
We love our Indie Community!
Leisa & Dustin
