2023 Zona Gale Award for Short Fiction
Deadline: Postmarked by January 31, 2024
Entry fee: $25 (or $15 for members of Arts + Literature Laboratory)
The Zona Gale Award for Short Fiction goes to the best piece of short fiction published by a Wisconsin writer in the contest year. See full contest guidelines.
First Place: $500 award and five-day stay at Shake Rag Alley Center for the Arts in Mineral Point, WI ($895 value)
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Honorable Mention: $50 and a five-day stay at Ernest Hüpeden's Painted Forest in Valton, WI ($800 value)
2023 Judge: Dipika Mukherjee
Dipika Mukherjee is the author of the novels Shambala Junction and Ode to Broken Things, and the story collection, Rules of Desire. Her work is included in The Best Small Fictions 2019 and appears in World Literature Today, Asia Literary Review, Del Sol Review, and Chicago Quarterly Review, Newsweek, and Los Angeles Review of Books. Her third poetry book, Dialect of Distant Harbors, was published by CavanKerry Press and a collection of travel essays, Writers Postcards, will apear in 2023 from Penguin Random House. She teaches at StoryStudio Chicago and the Graham School at University of Chicago. She holds a PhD in English (Sociolinguistics) from Texas A&M University.
History
Zona Gale (1874-1938), born in Portage, was a novelist, playwright, and short story writer whose work was inspired by her hometown. Her contemporary stories—often set in the fictional town of Friendship Village—focused on local color and descriptions of ordinary Midwestern people. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin, she worked as a journalist in Milwaukee and New York before returning to Portage to concentrate on her writing. In 1921, she became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for drama for the adaptation of her novel Miss Lulu Bett. She was active in progressive and feminist causes, including the National Women’s Party.
Previous Winners:
2022
First Place: “Sometimes Creek” (New Ohio Review) by Steve Fox, Hudson, WI
Steve Fox is the winner of the Rick Bass Montana Prize for Fiction, The Great Midwest Writing Contest, the Jade Ring Award, the Wisconsin People & Ideas Fiction Award, and the Midwestern Gothic Summer Flash Contest. His fiction has appeared in New Ohio Review, Orca, a Literary Journal, Midwest Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Whitefish Review, and others. He holds an MA in Spanish from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and has lived and worked in four continents. His debut short story collection, Sometimes Creek, was published by Cornerstone Press January 2023. Steve now resides in his home state of Wisconsin with his wife, Stephanie, three boys, and one dog. Steve gets up on Monday morning and goes to bed later that day on Saturday night. Find him at stevefoxwrites.com.
Honorable Mention: “Beantown” (Acentos Review) by Jennifer Morales, Viroqua, WI
Jennifer Morales (any human pronoun) is a poet, fiction writer, and performance artist based in rural Wisconsin. They are a graduate of Beloit College (BA, Modern Languages and Literatures) and Antioch University-Los Angeles (MFA, Creative Writing, Fiction). Their first book, Meet Me Halfway (UW Press 2015), a short story collection about life in hyper-segregated Milwaukee, was Wisconsin Center for the Book’s 2016 “Book of the Year,” among other honors. Recent publications include “Beantown” (Acentos Review 2022), “Cousins,” a short story in Milwaukee Noir (Akashic 2019), “The Boy Without a Bike,” in Cutting Edge, edited by Joyce Carol Oates (Akashic 2019), and “The Doorman,” in Fire & Water: Stories from the Anthropocene (Black Lawrence 2021). They also will be an April 2023 National Poetry Month featured poet on Brain Mill Press’s Voices site. Jennifer is a member of the board of the Driftless Writing Center, based in Viroqua, Wisconsin.
2019
Kimberly Blaeser, Burlington, for “Vision Confidence Score,” Cutthroat: A Journal of the Arts
Honorable Mention: Jennifer Morales, Viroqua, for “Cousins,” Milwaukee Noir
2018
William Stobb, Onalaska, for Short Fiction for “All the Bodies,” North Dakota Quarterly
Honorable Mention: Kathie Giorgio, Waukesha, for “Quiet,” moonShine Review
2017
Bob Wake, Cambridge, for “Mudstone,” Wisconsin People and Ideas
Honorable Mention: Matt Cashion, La Crosse, for “What Kills You,” Carolina Quarterly
2016
Liz Wyckoff, Madison, for “Like This, Like That,” Copper Nickel
Honorable Mention: Jeff Esterholm, Superior, for “Flaming Chevy Lodestar,” RE:AL Regarding Arts & Letters
2014
Margaret Benbow, Madison, “Joe Szabo and the Gypsy Bride,” The Antioch Review
Honorable Mention: Liam Callanan, Milwaukee, “Exhibit A,” Commonweal
2013
Matt Cashion, La Crosse, “Awful Pretty,” Moon City Review
Honorable Mention: Margaret Benbow, Madison “Simeon Prophet and Johanna,” The Antioch Review
2012
Jeff Esterholm, Superior, “Mrs. Weir,” Midwestern Gothic
Honorable Mention: Karen Loeb, Eau Claire, “Housewarming,” Thema
2011
Lydia Conklin, Madison, “Bear With Me,” Narrative Magazine
Honorable Mention: Paul Schultz, Madison, “First Sign,” Burning Bright, Passager
2010
Christopher Mohar, Madison, “The Five Points of Performance,” The Southwest Review
Honorable Mention: Jennifer Morales, Milwaukee, “Heavy Lifting,” The Long Story
2009
Matthew Cashion, La Crosse, “Last Words of the Holy Ghost,” Willow Springs
Honorable Mention: Gary Jones, Sister Bay, “The Visit,” Peninsula Pulse
2008
Ingrid Kallick, Madison, “Sonia,” Wisconsin People & Ideas
Honorable Mention: Jeff Esterholm, Verona, “The Return of the Norseman,” The Dirty Napkin
2007
Christi Clancy, Whitefish Bay, “Little Frozen Universes,” Hobart Journal
Honorable Mention: John Campbell, Brookfield, “Breaking into Print,” Timber Creek Review
Honorable Mention: Abbey Frucht, Oshkosh, “Is Glistening,” Narrative Magazine
2006
George Makana Clark, Milwaukee, “In the Center of the World,” Anchor Book
Honorable Mention: David E. McGlynn, Appleton, “Sweet Texas Angel,” Shenandoah
Honorable Mention: Gordon Weaver, Cedarburg, “The Death of Will Kempe,” Sewanee Review
2005
Margaret Benbow, Madison, “Egyptian,” Barnstorm (University of Wisconsin Press)
2004
Susan Engberg, Milwaukee, “Moon,” The Threepenny Review
Honorable Mention: Rebecca Meacham, Oneida, “Good Fences,” Michigan Quarterly Review
Honorable Mention: Ted Hertel, Jr., Mequon, “It’s Crackers to Slip a Rozzer the Dropsey in Snide,” Small Crimes Anthology
2003
Geeta Sharma Jensen, Franksville, “A Good Country,” The Atlantic Monthly
2002
Gordon Weaver, Cedarburg, “And What Should I Do in Illyria,” High Plains Literary Review
2001
C. J. Hribal, Milwaukee, “Morton and Lilly, Dredge and Fill,” Wisconsin Academy Review
2000
Gordon Weaver, Cedarburg, “The Carted Whore,” Notre Dame Review
1999
Kathleen Lester, “Das Bächlein”
1998
C.J. Hribal, “And That’s the Name of That Tune”
1997
Gordon Weaver, “Without Spot or Wrinkle”
1996
Thomas Bontly, “Lucky’s Blues”
1995
Christine Tachick, “Ticket to Tower Bridge”
1994
Ellen Hunnicutt, “Tango”
1993
Joseph Gahagan, “Island People”
1992
John Goulet, “Trust”
1991
Rachel Pastan, “Cooking for Gloria”
1990
unknown
1989
Lisa Ruffolo, “My Grandfather’s Suit”
1988
Thomas Bontly, “Act of Faith”
1987
Ron Tanner, “Head Over Heels”
1986
Martha Bergland, “An Embarrassment of Ordinary Riches”
1985
Justin lsherwood, “Sideways Christmas”
1984
Robert Treu, “Living at the Riverbeau”
1982
Justin Isherwood, “The Cruiser”
1982
Jane Hamilton, “My Own Earth”
1981
Steve Tighe, “Sinful Blues”
1980
Sydney Harth, “Pain, What to Do With It”
1979
Jennifer Lodde, “Ladies Inside the Wall”
1978
Nobert Blei, “A Distance of Horses”
1977
John Allschwang, “Booby Trap”
1976
Thomas Bontly, “The Blue Smile”
1975
Jack Ritchie, “Bedlam at the Budgie”
1974
Robert Gard, “Tall Grasses of Search”
1973
John Fogarty, “A Final Lie”
1972
Jack Ritchie, “Let Your Fingers Do the Walking”
1971
Harold Rolseth, “Hey, You Down There”
1970
Robert Wells, “The Christmas Computer
1969
Thomas Ramirez, “The Secret Life”
1968
Dion Henderson, “The Bear”
1967
Jack Ritchie, (body of work)
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