I chatted with 2010 Literary Award Program Winner Tara Laskowski, who shared her insights on the contest, flash fiction, and novels. Sheila Lamb: Your chapbook, Black Diamond City, won the 2010 Literary Awards Program. How did you discover the SFWP’s Literary...
Tacánecy tenses as she waits to begin her next count. The lightning is closer now, and she readies herself for a silent and measured five. She prays her sleeping husband will not hear the sound she is about to make. Despite herself, she jumps when a piercing flash...
“Floor ‘Z,’ please.” The school elevator was packed, but no one spoke. I noticed several kids glancing at me in the reflection from the brass doors. RING! “Excuse me,” I said, squeezing out into the hall. I was the only one. The doors closed and the elevator resumed...
Berto’s earliest memory was not of a vision but a smell. It came from under the door of the room that he was forbidden to enter. He’d been playing a game with sticks and pebbles on the floor – war, against the Austrians – while his mother simultaneously nursed the...
“That boat’s awfully far out.” We were on the beach, playing one of our games (getting your fir cones into the opposing team’s basket). One of the other boys had stopped and stretched out a scrawny arm to indicate a spot somewhere near the horizon. Shielding our eyes...
I was eight when Perry Cole moved into Blacksburg. She was special ed. She was tall with string for hair, and no one even saw her. All the special ed kids were invisible, except when they weren’t and we’d snicker and watch our boys toss paper at them, make kissing...
