BOMB 123/Spring 2013
BOMB is pleased and proud to announce the winner and runners-up of our 2011 Fiction Contest, judged by author Rivka Galchen.
This is BOMB’s 5th year holding our fiction contest, and we are excited to reveal the winner of this year’s competition. We’re proud to report that we received over 300 submissions. Canadian-born novelist and essayist Rivka Galchen, author of 2008’s Atmospheric Disturbances, winner of the William J. Saroyan International Prize for Fiction, kindly donated her literary expertise to aid us in the difficult process of selecting the contest’s frontrunners. Judging literary merit is never simple, never black-and-white. With due consideration and diligence, Rivka has selected this year’s winner and two runners-up.
Our winner is the short story titled “Label” by Sean Hoen. Sean is a current resident of Brooklyn, but was raised in Dearborn, Michigan. “Label” is his first submission to a literary contest.
This year’s runners-up are “Thirteens” by Richard Weber, a New Yorker currently living in Carouge, Switzerland, and “The Man-Moth” by Naomi Williams of Davis, California.
Congratulations to our winner and runners-up, and here again is a list of this year’s finalists:
“The Last Days of Vander Clyde Broadway” by Christopher Backs
“Letter to Henry Miller” by Suzanne Freeman
“Crisp White Sheets” by Travis Freeman
“A Village in the Country” by Michael Halmshaw
“Aunt Gin in Solipsistic Slope” by Kristopher Jansma
“How to Render Alexa” by Kelly Shriver
“Eta Translator” by Paul Vidich
Thank you to everyone who took the time to submit and patiently awaited the contest’s results.
“The Last Days of Vander Clyde Broadway” by Christopher Backs
“Letter to Henry Miller” by Suzanne Freeman
“Crisp White Sheets” by Travis Freeman
“A Village in the Country” by Michael Halmshaw
“Label” by Sean Hoen
“Aunt Gin in Solipsistic Slope” by Kristopher Jansma
“How to Render Alexa” by Kelly Shriver
“Eta Translator” by Paul Vidich
“Thirteens” by Richard Weber
“The Man-Moth” by Naomi Williams
Congratulations to this year’s finalists. Our winner and runners-up will be announced this Thursday, the 15th.
NOTE: THE WINNER OF THE CONTEST WILL BE ANNOUNCED BY September 15. BOMB sincerely apologizes for the delay in announcing the winner to the 2011 Fiction Contest. We received twice as many submissions this year compared to years past and were unprepared for the volume. Delays were also a result of shifting production schedules and change of printers for the magazine in July and August, which set us back further. The fault is fully BOMB’s and not the judge’s. Finalists were recently chosen and we are awaiting the decision about the winner imminently. We could not release this list of finalists as the contest is being judged anonymously. We appreciate your patience and apologize for any inconvenience this has caused those who submitted.
Deadline April 30 (Postmarked by April 30). The winner of our 2011 contest will receive a $500 prize and publication in BOMB Magazine’s literary supplement First Proof.
Founded in 1981, BOMB has championed and encouraged the literary efforts of both established and emerging writers for more than a quarter-century, with a contributing editorial board that boasts contemporary giants such as A.M. Homes, Patrick McGrath, Amy Hempel, and Jonathan Lethem, all whom have generously judged our last four fiction contests.
Fiction Contest Submission Guidelines
• Winner receives $500 and publication in BOMB Magazine
• Final Judge: Rivka Galchen (author of Atmospheric Disturbances)
• Deadline: April 30, 2011
• Reading Fee: $20 — includes a free one-year subscription to BOMB
(for Canadian addresses add $6, for addresses outside US and Canada, add $12); make all checks and money orders payable to BOMB Magazine.
We are now accepting online submissions. Click here to upload your story and pay the reading fee (includes free one-year subscription to the magazine); to pay online but submit by mail, scroll to the very bottom of this page). All submissions read anonymously.
If you prefer to mail your entry but pay online please pay below. Note: if you choose to upload your submission you will also pay there, so you should not use the below to make payment.
• Manuscripts of one story maximum must be less than 20 pages (around 5,000 words regardless of single or double spacing).
• Include cover letter with name, address, email, phone number and title of story; do not write a name on the actual manuscript, as all entries will be considered anonymously.
• Simultaneous submissions OK, but reading fee is not refundable.
• Story must be previously unpublished.
• Multiple entries OK as long as you pay the reading fee for each story submitted, however only one subscription to BOMB will be given per entrant.
• Email generalinquiries (at) bombsite (dot) com with any questions.
Rivka Galchen is the author of Atmospheric Disturbances and was recently named one of The New Yorker’s “20 under 40” list. She has also has been featured in BOMB in conversation with Nathan Englander, and BOMB’s Summer 2007 First Proof.
The winning story will be published in an upcoming issue of BOMB’s First Proof (Issue 117).
If you would prefer to mail in your submission, you can still pay online with PayPal here (as a result of PayPal fees the cost to you for paying with PayPal is slightly higher):
Or with google checkout here:
Mail entries to:
BOMB Magazine
2011 Fiction Contest
80 Hanson Place, #703
Brooklyn, NY 11217
• If you pay online, please be sure to note your 15 digit Google Checkout Order # or your 17 digit PayPal Transaction ID on your cover letter, if the name on your PayPal account is different from the name of entrant, please also note name on PayPal account with Transaction ID number on your cover letter.
(Fiction, Contests)