Winners from November 12, 2010

1st Place: Crazy by Caroline Bybee
Bybee's disjointed and dark Crazy is all wild impression and sporadic revelation. With its purposeful dearth of capitalization and abrasive grammar, this piece captures that difficult sensation of a young mind in distress. Readers will find the format particularly telling--the staccato statement sentences, arrayed in episodic format, lead up to stark yet poignant descriptive language. Crazy will not leave the reader jovial, but it will leave the reader pensive. Reflective. Changed.
Download and read Crazy.
2nd Place: Child's Play by LA Henderson
Henderson's short, complex piece on "right" and "wrong," "good" and "evil," presents a fascinating gray area that readers will ponder long after finishing the closing sentence. The sign of a good story is the tendency of readers to disagree about the ultimate conclusion, all while recognizing that the author may have intended all interpretations to be correct. The writing is top-notch, yes, but it's the delicious mix-up of imagery, sensation, and body language that propels this piece. We recommend readers prepare to read this piece not once, but twice.
Download and read Child's Play.
3rd Place: Diary of a Reform Girl by Shama Nathan
Steward House can't get enough of stories about people who find themselves the outsider, who identify as "other," and who must now mesh into their new surroundings without losing hold of themselves entirely. Nathan gives us a window into this process in a deeply personal account of a young girl navigating both religious and ethnic waters to discover, ultimately, self- and peer-acceptance. Rather than replace her values and identity, her protagonist seeks the common ground between her old life and her new, all while seeking contentment. Despite a little rough grammar, we promise readers will find this read a rewarding one.
Download and read Diary of a Reform Girl.

Featured Publication

A Pilot's Guide to Washington

This book is a guidebook for private aviators in Washington State, or folks visiting the State. Washington State is among the most beautiful and diverse states in the Union. There are flat and dry desserts, stunning basalt formations, towering mountains, rolling grass hills, thick rain forests, island archipelagos, and lakes and rivers and straits and sounds. Well, one sound. And we have roughly a billion airports to visit. (I'm exaggerating slightly.) It would be shame to be a pilot living in or visiting Washington State and not deeply partake of the richness of this opportunity.

Order the book from: Amazon.