The Bear Deluxe Magazine is pleased to recognize these writers and their stories from the 2009 Doug Fir Fiction Award. Author Jon Raymond served as the award’s judge.
Winner
($1,000 and publication)
Joeann Hart
Gloucester, MA
For her story: Float
Finalists
Owen Goodwyne
Tallahassee, FL
For his story: Deadeye
Heather Brittain Bergstrom
Yuba, CA
For her story: All Sorts of Hunger
Semi-Finalists
Allison Alsup
New Orleans, LA
For her story: East of the Sierra
Heather McDonald
San Francisco, CA
For her story: Power Walking
Melinda Moustakis
Kalamazoo, MI
For her story: They Find the Drowned
Judge’s Comments:
I have to say, this was a really tough decision. Numerous of these stories, in extremely different ways, seemed accomplished enough to claim first place. So before giving the final verdict, allow me to offer some praise for a couple of runners-up. All Sorts of Hunger I found to be a deeply compassionate, thoroughly humane portrait of hardscrabble lives along the Columbia River, rendered in lean, modest prose. And Deadeye hit me as a hugely fun, rambunctious yarn, told with great charisma and color. In the end, though, I'm suggesting first place go to Float, the story of Leland Duncan, the fretful owner of a failing fish-processing plant on the coast of Maine, who one day finds a strange message on the harbor beach outside his window, and has an encounter with a seagull. Although light on action, the story nonetheless manages to take on such diffuse topics as infertility, professional anxiety, and the marine geography of Prescott, Maine, all with equally great descriptive acumen. What most distinguished this story for me, though, was how strongly it gestured toward something truly new, something thoroughly contemporary, a world neither wild nor entirely tamed, peopled by men and women making their ways without guidance from anyone but each other. This is a writer, in other words, who seems to be bringing us news we haven't heard before.
The winning story will be published in The Bear Deluxe #31 (fall 2010). All award participants will receive a copy of the fall issue.
Special thanks to Jon Raymond and the award participants.