CONTEST
Congratulations to our inaugural Flash Fiction Contest winners!
FIRST PLACE:
“Maybe it Was”
by Erin Schalk
I can’t remember the exact moment I fell in love with Willa Curran.
Maybe it was the summer after 4th grade, when our neighbor Ms. Merveille turned 90 and decided to chase her every long-deferred dream before time ran out. Determined to become a masterful Impressionist painter––a Claude Monet for the 21st century––she painted en plein air from her 3rd-floor retirement apartment balcony. The muggy Midwestern summer wore on, flies embedding themselves in her cake-frosting applications of oil paint.
SECOND PLACE:
“The Weight of Seven Pounds”
by Monique Rardin Richardson
It’s the second day of fall. I was born yesterday under a waning crescent moon.
Mama could’ve named me Autumn, but she didn’t. A nun at her Catholic school inspired my name. French, my mother asked for, and French it was. Maybe someday I’ll appreciate it. I bet I will.
THIRD PLACE:
“Left Behind”
by Billie Hanson-Dupree
I approach the double doors, feet dragging. Wrench one door open and enter. Breathing hard. The air is thick. The same air I breathed before I walked in, but it doesn’t feel the same. Is it the school smell of floor wax and disinfectant?
Shortlist Honorees (in alphabetical order):
“The Sound of Beautiful Memories”, by Mary Adler
“My Jane Kenyon Birthday Wish”, by Dana Dakin
“Caves”, by Lisa Johnson
“Indian Moses’ Farewell”, by Wanda Sue Parrott
“Metempsychosis”, by Emily Patton
We would like to recognize everyone who submitted to this contest. Our judges say you made it very hard for them to choose!
CWC Marin would like to thank our judges, who mined more than fifty entries to find our winning gems. We also want to recognize our first-cut judges and contest organizers Gini Grossenbacher and Erik Cederblom. They whittled down the initial batch of entries from across CWC branches to twenty promising stories, and handed them off to our external judges along with a rubric for them to use.
Terry Tierney
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Dr. Jeanne Powell
Dr. Jeanne Powell earned degrees from WSU in Michigan and University of San Francisco. She is a published poet and essayist with five books in print: My Own Silence, Word Dancing, Two Seasons, Deeply Notched Leaves, and Carousel (essays). Her film reviews appear at starkinsider.com/author/jeannep.
Website: jeannepowell.com
Shirin Yim Leos
Shirin Yim Leos is the award-winning author of 21 children’s books. Her debut novel, OF WIND AND DUST, about three women—one born married, one born enslaved, one born free—all wives of the same man, was inspired by family history. Its acquisition was PW’s Deal of the Week 09/25/25.
Website shirinyimleos.com.
Instagram: shirinyimleos