Nimrod Finalist

Ms. Francine Ringold, Editor-in-Chief at Nimrod sent me an email today:

The Editors of Nimrod International Journal are pleased to inform you that your fiction entry, “Letter Ж,” has been selected as a finalist for The Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction. There were 588 fiction manuscripts submitted to the Nimrod Literary Awards competition for The Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction.

The finalists will be submitted to the fiction judge for 2008, who will select the first and second place winners; those results should be forthcoming by the middle of June at the latest and we will notify you as quickly as possible... The winners will also be brought to Tulsa for the Awards Ceremony and Writing Workshop, this year on October 17-18th.

So, keeping fingers crossed...

"Tobacco Wedding" in Blackbird

You can now read my story "Tobacco Wedding"

in the Spring issue of Blackbird.

I'm also featured in Blackbird's reading loop, which offers "a closer look at six outstanding artists in earlier stages of their careers."

Below is an excerpt from the loop:

Miroslav Penkov calls on his Bulgarian heritage to land us in a story that marries folk tale to realistic narrative and the fantastic to the detailed mundane. Grounded in the intimacy of an oral transmission around a fire, the story also traverses that shaky ground where humor and broad comedy meet affection and earned sympathy. The narrator carries us with him on a short run through picaresque by-lanes that is definitely worth the trip.

... Man, it took me twenty minutes to translate this into decent Bulgarian for my family back home...

But this is not all. The Spring issue of Blackbird also features a story by my wonderful teacher Molly Giles and a poem by the great Ash Bowen. An incredible coincidence as far as I'm concerned.

Well, I hope you like the story.

Baucum Fulkerson Award in Fiction

My story "Blood Money" recently received the Baucum Fulkerson Award in Fiction (here at the University of Arkansas).

The author’s skilled voice and observant eye create a story that is simultaneously thoughtful and filled with pathos. This voice and eye, combined with the vividly realized scene and characterizations, make for a remarkably evocative piece that is also curiously haunting.