2009 Fiction Contest Winners

Perigee is pleased to announce the winners of our 2009 Fiction Contest. Fiction Editor Duff Brenna, and our finalist judge James Brown, have selected three winners and two honorable mentions from a selection of 10 finalists.

First Place ($300):  "Auscultating in the Fourth Dimension," by Jacob M. Appel.

Second Place ($200):  "It Happened to River," by Rachel Allyson Stone.

Third Place ($100):  "Camping," by Sarah Lynn Knowles.

Honorable Mentions:  "Lessons in House Hunting," by Cynthia Drew; "Past Buckhorn Reservoir," by Elizabeth Kaufman.

Additional Finalists: "Color Me Normal," by Christine Benedict; "Thirty-Nine Minutes," by Sandra Jensen; "A Two-Chambered Heart," by Priyanka Joseph; "Shotgun Levine," by Hesh Kestin; "Population Me," by Kevin O'Neill.

The winning stories will be published in our 25th issue, due out on July 15th, 2009.

Our congratulations to the finalists and winners, and our sincerest thanks to all who participated. Special thanks also to our guest judge James Brown. His insight and ear for the craft of storytelling helped make a difficult process easier, and we very much appreciate having had the opportunity to work with him. We invite you to read our note of special thanks below.

Special Thanks to James Brown

Perigee would like to extend a special thanks to our 2009 Fiction Contest guest judge James Brown, who was not only a pleasure to work with, but also brought a marvelous insight to our contest and the deliberation process, and a sensitivity to the craft of story telling which speaks to his talents as a writer.

Our Fiction Editor Duff Brenna recently wrote this about James Brown's powerful memoir, Instruction on the Use of Heroin:

James Brown's provocative, beautifully written and gut wrenching memoir illuminates a life rich in those elemental passions that govern our lives—anger, fear, depression, death, and love. Sometimes tender, sometimes manic, but always wise and insightful, Instruction on the Use of Heroin never falters in the muscularity of the writing, all of it filled with riveting details that kept this reader turning the pages as fast as he could read them. Here is a remarkable life, one that is both devastating and inspiring. Any ordinary man experiencing what Brown went through would doubtless have died long ago, but Brown not only survived, he triumphed and in ways no one would have predicted, least of all, perhaps, Brown himself. From a junky/alcoholic to award-winning writer and university professor, Brown has proven once again that there are no oracles when it comes to foretelling the inevitable course of any man's journey. Mesmerizing from beginning to end. Unforgettable.

We hope Perigee's readers will take a moment to visit James Brown's web site and add his book to their summer reading list.