Five Make the Shortlist for our March Writing Contest
We are so pleased to announce that five writers have made the shortlist for our March 2020 Write Prompt Challenge.
We try to choose images that can take authors in countless directions, and the image of a cat in a guitar case certainly took people on some interesting adventures. These writers approached the provided image with wonderfully unique views that were clever and surprising.
Congratulations to James Dick, Catherine Geiling, Julie Meier, Ashvaria Rai, and Cheryl Skory Suma — we wish you well as you go on to the final stage of judging!
JAMES DICK | shortlisted for his story, 'Cats, Keys, and Car Alarms'
James Dick is an actor and writer based out of Toronto, as well as a full time Media Production student at Ryerson University.
CATHERINE GEILING | shortlisted for her story, 'Eight Lives So Far'
Catherine Geiling has recently rediscovered her love of writing, after a lengthy hiatus to deal with life's realities, some more real than others'. She has a stellar example of humanity, a beloved grown son. She lives in Quebec, just north of the Ontario border, with her husband and two Labrador retrievers, all of whom strive to keep her sane.
JULIE MEIER | shortlisted for her story, 'Navigating Stormy Seas'
Julie Meier resides on a farm in Alberta, Canada, where you may find her writing, cuddling lambs or playing ‘80s rock music for her bees. Her flash fiction has been published in several online publications and her story “These Walls” was recently shortlisted for the 2020 Edinburgh International Flash Fiction Award.
ASHVARIA RAI | shortlisted for her story, 'Fact: Cats Are Better Than Humans'
Ashvaria Rai describes herself as "just an undergrad trying to figure out life through writing."
CHERYL SKORY SUMA | shortlisted for her story, 'Floccinaucinihilipilification'
Cheryl Skory Suma launched her writing career with a YA fantasy novel, Habitan, which made the Longlist of Santa Fe Writers Project Literary Awards last August. In 2019/20, her poetry appeared in La Piccioletta Barca (Issues 12 & 16) and Public Poetry’s Enough Anthology, and in 2019 she was longlisted for the Erbacce Prize for poetry, a semifinalist for Ruminate Magazine’s VanderMey Nonfiction Prize, shortlisted for Hippocampus Magazine’s Creative Nonfiction Contest and Blank Spaces spring & fall Flash Fiction contests. She released her second novel, gods Playground, last year, which recently advance to the semifinals of the ScreenCraft Cinematic Book Competition (results pending March). She is currently working on a short story collection. Cheryl has a Masters of Health Science in Speech-Language Pathology and a B.Sc. in Honors Psychology.
These five entries will be sent out to our panel of judges who rate each story based on its own merit. [See a breakdown of what the judges look for here.] Winners will be announced at the beginning of May - with first place being published in the June 2020 issue of Blank Spaces.
