2nd Place Winner of the 2009 Be Your Art Writing Competition. Co-published with the North Shoreian Magazine, February 2010.

By Anna Katsavos

It smells of a scavenger hunt, each of us waiting for the cue, each of us ready to pounce.  We take our positions, sit up straight, and smile, all of us flashing our biggest, toothy grins.  Forty-five dollars poorer, we’re gathered in a swanky city club, sitting at our designated tables, each of us perched on her seat, emitting vibes that beg, “Pick me, pick me.”  This eight-minute speed-dating, a bizarre, rate-a-mate version of musical chairs, is already more than I can handle.  It’s worse than I had imagined, worse than that school-yard feeling of waiting to be chosen.

Ding!  Ding!  Every eight minutes, Ding! Ding! I mean come on–eight minutes?  It takes me longer than that to pick out bottled water. Read more…

Third Place Winner of the 2009 Be Your Art Writing Competition. Co-published with the North Shoreian Magazine, December 2009.

By Micki Peluso

Hank’s eyelids opened with aching slowness, blinking away the bright wash of sunlight spilling into his room. He squinted out the window at a high, pale sun. Past noon. Damn. He’d overslept. Most mornings he enjoyed watching the sun rise over the Palo Duro canyons, deep below the Texas plains—last night’s binge at the Rock n’ Bull Saloon had laid him low.

Rubbing a hand across his face, Hank swung his feet over the side of the bed and reached for his boots.  He frowned as he looked for the other one and found it on his foot. He’d slept, shirtless, one boot still on, caught up in his pulled down denims which hung at his knees. Read more…