McPherson: Thank You RiverRun Bookstore!

A couple of months ago RiverRun bookstore in Portsmouth began accepting submissions for a short story contest. There were two categories: Age 17 and under, and 18 up. I received the following email this morning:

“We are thrilled to announce and congratulate the winners of our 2015 Short Story Contest. We invited writers of all ages to send us a piece of short fiction to be entered to win fame, glory, and a gift card to RiverRun. We are delighted to say that we received an overwhelming number of stories (more than 100!!), and as promised, we will be publishing an anthology of some of the best submissions!

Without further ado, here are the winners in the 18 and over category:

In fourth place, Anne Britting Oleson, for her story ’Gun’

In third place, Scott McPherson for his story ’The Mick Situation’.

In second place, Pietro O’Rourke for his story ’Religious Painting’.

And in first place, Kate Johnston for her story ’Shattered’.

In the 17 and under category:

2nd Place: Sydney Smith (age 10) for her story ’The Now Told Story of Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer’

1st Place: Michael Lomabardi (age 17) for his story ’The System’

We’d like to extend a very honorable mention to these 17 and Under participants as well: Sacha Kiesmn, Haden Fitt, Amelia D’Anci and Mitch Norris. Great job!!

When we announced this contest, we had no idea that we would get such amazing and diverse submissions. The stories ranged from 150 words and funny to 4500 words and dead serious (in fact, there were a remarkable number of deaths in these stories-draw your own conclusions about that!) The writers were just as impressive. We received a story from a 10 year old, and another from an 82 year old. Overall, we are very excited with the results of this contest and are eager to share the stories with you through the anthology.

On Friday, July 24, we will be hosting an event at the RiverRun bookstore. The winners from the contest will be invited to read a part of their work. At the event, we will also release the finished anthology. We hope to see you there, and again, a big congratulations to our winners, as well as the authors who will be published in the book, and everyone who participated. You will be hearing from us shortly.”

Thank You RiverRun for hosting this competition, and honoring me with Third Place! And congratulations to all the winners! I look forward to joining them for a public reading at the store on July 24! Hope you can make it too!