Valerie Speedwell Awarded 2016 Orlando Flash Fiction Prize
Congratulations to Valerie Speedwell on the selection of her piece, “Regina,” for the 2016 Orlando Flash Fiction Prize. “Regina,” will be published in Waves: A Confluence of Women’s Voices, Featuring Maxine Hong Kingston. “Regina” creates an unstoppable presence and voice, in a rush of language and rhythm that admits no argument or challenge, despite the obstacles it names. The sheer energy and vitality...
Jocelyn Edelstein Awarded 2016 Orlando Creative Nonfiction Prize
Congratulations to Jocelyn Edelstein on the selection of her essay, “Keep Calling My Name: Frogs, circles and climate change,” for the 2016 Orlando Creative Nonfiction Prize. “Keep Calling My Name: Frogs, circles and climate change,” will be published in Waves: A Confluence of Women’s Voices, Featuring Maxine Hong Kingston. “Keep Calling My Name: Frogs, circles and climate change” looks for ways in which...
“Twelve Parables,” by Diana Spechler
1. For seventh grade, you’ll attend The Newton Country Day School of the Sacred Heart. “All girls,” your mother says. “Won’t that be nice?” (Soon you’ll learn its alternate name: The Newton Cunty Fuck Pool of the Secret Lesbian.) “Aren’t we Jewish?” “What kind of question is that—are we Jewish.” “What is a sacred heart?” “I should know? That’s something you’ll ask the Catholics. The school’s on Dad’s way to work.” “So I’m going...
Orlando Writers and the Rising Wave
What a deep writerly pleasure it was for me to read the most recent Orlando submissions and to make the final selections. It was not surprising that the work that came in was so various and so fine—but such work always surprises the mind and the spirit and heart. I send my thanks to all for the privilege of reading, and congratulations to the winners and finalists. The winners of this Orlando cycle will be included in a new AROHO...
Blood Sugar Canto by Ire’ne Lara Silva
“Being named the 2013 Fiction Genre Finalist for the Gift of Freedom Award validated me as a fiction writer and buoyed my belief that I could push forward with my projects and that they would find an audience.” —Ire’ne Lara Silva Buy on Amazon “Silva is a poet-curandera who “sings the body electric,” transforming suffering into song. She probes the ways that love, justice and...