Winner of The Letter Review Prize for Poetry Cause and Effect That’s what happened:his factory was fined for coughing thick smokefrom its stacks, so his boss has him working laterto claw back the shortfall; you stop waiting up for himafter too many nodding nights and roll away in bed;you feel lonelier together and avoid hard … Read more
Winner of The Letter Review Prize for Poetry Winter 2023 The hirsute man sits in the jeweller’s doorway.The dishevelled dog,a constant by his side.Passers-by avert their eyesexcept oneuniformed stranger.He walks towards themwith concerned dismay,crouches to talk,takes the dog away. Colette Lawlor is a biologist who teaches adults and lives on Morecambe Bay, UK. Since her … Read more
Winner of The Letter Review Prize for Short Fiction “Shovel birds in silver tides,” Sammy read aloud from his flippy little notebook. We were huddled on a bench on the wind protected side of the park. We’d just been kicked out of the library for loitering, where Sammy was scribbling down lines he liked from … Read more
Winner of The Letter Review Prize for Short Fiction A majestic lioness bears down upon a helpless young antelope. The carcass of its mauled mother sprawled, bloody, nearby. The tawny calf stands motionless – paralyzed by fear or too innocent to comprehend death – as the powerful jaws close around its delicate neck. However, surprisingly, … Read more
Winner of The Letter Review Prize for Short Fiction My city-boy-turned-country-boy wants us to move but how can I go? I’ve lived here through bombs, heatwaves, riots. Recessions, states of emergency, killer viruses. Nothing mars my devotion. The City can survive anything, and that makes me feel like I can too. My body has absorbed … Read more
Winner of The Letter Review Prize for Short Fiction Wish Fairy: Tell me again. You: It’s the lecture I’ll give when I’m forty-three. My wife will give me a blow job that morning. Then I’ll catch that early cab. I’ll notice my suit fits me exceptionally well. Mingling will feel better than it ever has … Read more
Winner of The Letter Review Prize for Short Fiction The man sat in his chair, staring straight ahead, unblinking. A passerby might find this strange: the rigidity of his back, the thinness of his mouth, and the look in his eyes, reminiscent of a man heading into combat. They might wonder why a young man … Read more
Winner of The Letter Review Prize for Short Fiction A panting wolfhound. A lovers’ parting kiss. A giant’s severed head. The drifting clouds above the fairies’ hawthorn sprang to life in his mind’s eye. “Get up, ye lazy sod!” Ned’s raven-haired mam planted her boot squarely on his backside and Ned tumbled down the mound, … Read more
Winner of The Letter Review Prize for Unpublished Books SPRING 1. In the beginning was C/r. If a bond pays a periodic payment of C in perpetuity, its value is cash flow divided by the interest rate. Assume yearly payments of $100 and an interest rate of 5%. That bond is worth $100/.05, or $2,000. Every other cash-flow … Read more
The Cantacuzene Family Crest (Quae Nocent Docent – What Harms, Teaches) Winner of The Letter Review Prize for Unpublished Books PROLOGUE The Waters Off Greenland September 1899 The steamship surges forward, its prow lifting and falling over the swells of the North Atlantic. At each new wave, the ship hesitates and shudders, leaning backward towards America, … Read more