Every great and powerful literary magazine gets to send out nominations for the Pushcart Prize every December 1st. Here are our nominations; five beautiful and wicked little stories that were each published by The Fiction Circus this year. Check them out if you haven't read them already. They are each sublime, tight, well-crafted, and fun as hell to read.

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(1). "How Not To Ruin Your Daughters," by Andria Nacina Cole



"Here's how not to ruin your daughters. First, do not stay married long enough for them to see your head thrown against a glass table. And if you must, divorce the man soon after. While divorcing him, say dramatic things like, "I deserve better." Repeat these statements (aloud) for the rest of the girls' lives and couple them with a vow of chastity..."



(2). "The Hungry," by Kerry Donoghue



"Buick DeGaulle did not turn his head in time after he belched.

"Buick, please," his wife complained from underneath him. After eight years of marriage, Glory was almost immune to the stench of bratwurst and white onions. But almost only counts in horseshoes, and she was playing to win. "Not when we're trying to make a baby..."



(3). "The Second Door," by Claire O'Connor



"They warned us about the darkness, but they failed to explain that sometimes it would feel like a starless space and sometimes it would be like a bag over your head. Nor did they warn us how cold it would be, how our hands would chafe, how our eyes would water, how our balls would shrivel up like rotten quail eggs, how our bones would gradually shrink, crushed by fathoms of water previously known only to tubular life forms that fed off of the heat of thermal trenches..."



(4). "One Life," by Kevin Brown



"Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome begins with a high fever, 38 degrees Celsius or more, accompanied by headache, discomfort, and body pain. Ten to twenty percent of patients get diarrhea. A dry cough develops within two to seven days, usually followed by pneumonia..."


(5). "Dashing Through the Snow," by John Patrick Tormey



"The Quinn family trudged up the three flights of stairs to Uncle Terry's apartment. They climbed single-file in order of age from oldest to youngest: Dan and Pattie, Molly, Chris, and then Brendan. All stepped quick to escape the cold December night at their backs. As the family crowded onto the third floor landing, they removed their hats and gloves, put their hands to their mouths and blew hot air on their fingers..."



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Best of luck to our writers! They had the guts to throw their lot in with us this year and we want to see them win the shit out of this contest. We are behind them all as hard as we can be.




Posted by miracle on Fri, 04 Dec 2009 01:17:01 -0500 -- permanent link