Joint Winner of the Letter Review Prize for Short Stories Listen up, compadre. If you want to run a bodega successfully in the Boogie Down, you need to check your scruples at the door. See that upside-down milk crate by the potato chip rack? That’s a chair. See that cold-cut slicer in the deli? That’s … Read more
Joint Winner of the Letter Review Prize for Poetry We see so little of the world, a mere corner,they say, though today, nothing seems scanty—the oaks around the meadow, full of spiked leaves and fear- ful band-tails, life’s matrix pulsing every nerve—it’s morethan more: it’s a slow explosion, even if its plentyis mere sliver next … Read more
Joint Winner of The Letter Review Prize for Poetry The house in its placecould never replace it. A three-car garagewhere the bar used to be. “I wonder what would happenif I knocked on the door and told the cast insideit was happy hour? Might they invite me infor a cameo? A curtain call cocktailon the … Read more
Joint Winner of the Letter Review Prize for Poetry i. In the field, light cuts across my palms and draws nothing but a new shadow. A gift mistaken for darkness. ii. In a poem you can be anything but a better son. iii. Half a country away, I carry your name – a hummingbird sleeping between my palms. iv. You never taught me how to suffer, mother. Which … Read more
Joint Winner of the Letter Review Prize for Flash Fiction Kenneth would not look back into the room, only out of the window at his dying garden. She had come a long way. Two buses, a train, another bus. His three sons, all grown, had been trying to encourage him to turn his head ever … Read more
Joint Winner of The Letter Review Prize for Flash Fiction Zeke slid the rusted step-side under the cypress moss and wiggled the shifter into neutral. He circled his window down first and reached over Jeannie Mae to crank hers. Which was a hassle given the knob was broken off and persuasion was needed to hold … Read more
Joint Winner of The Letter Review Prize for Flash Fiction One month into the pandemic, I bought a telescope. It was my wife who suggested it. In the first few weeks she’d started running, practicing yoga, and joined a book club. None of those appealed to me, but I’d always liked space. I spent a … Read more
Second Place in the Letter Review Prize for Short Stories During mid-morning coffee break, Fintan told Shauna about his recurring dream. He told it, if not for laughs, then as fodder for caffeine-time banter. He said that he was in Chapters, rooting through the second-hand CD racks, picking out some rare finds, while feeling an … Read more
The Mine Third Place in the Letter Review Prize for Short Stories New Fiction by Mark Grant June 29th, 2023 After wiping the grey earthenware bowl, he ate the sodden bread, licked his fingers, and finished the lopsided beaker of sour beer. He looked across the smoky room at three soldiers, dark cropped heads clustered … Read more
An Element of Time Second Place in the Letter Review for Flash Fiction New Flash Fiction by Dale Shank June 29th, 2023 One evening while Argon went through his parents’ documents to settle their estate, he discovered in their will that he, the estate’s sole beneficiary, was born a generation before them. Immediately, he went … Read more