We are excited to announce the winners of the 2022 Big Sky, Small Prose Flash Contest, judged by S.M. Hulse. We appreciate every submission we get — thank you for the opportunity to read your work. The winning stories will be published in CutBank 98.
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First-Place Prize:
“Behemoth” by Kathleen Walker
Kathleen Walker lives in South Carolina, where she writes in the company of her two cats. She recently completed her undergraduate degree in creative writing from Virginia Tech. Her work has previously appeared in Susurrus and Silhouette Magazine.
From contest judge S.M. Hulse: “‘Behemoth’ opens with the narrator falling into a social media rabbit hole involving various means of disposing of and displaying animal remains. What follows is a meditation on loss and love that balances grit and grief, expertly — and with a surprising touch of humor —combining earthy physical reality with the intangibles of human experience.”
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Runners-up:
“Incline and Rise” by Rose McLarney
“To the Woman in the Fred Meyer Self-Checkout Line Who Thought I Was More Puerto Rican Than I Really Am” by Rachel Attias
Rose McLarney’s books are Forage and Its Day Being Gone, both from Penguin Poets, as well as The Always Broken Plates of Mountains, published by Four Way Books. Currently, Rose is Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Auburn University. Her fourth collection of poems will be published by Penguin in 2024.
Rachel Attias's writing has appeared in n+1, Porter House Review, X-R-A-Y, and more. A recipient of a residency at Hedgebrook, she holds an MFA from Oregon State University and is at work on her first novel and a collection of stories.
S.M. Hulse is the author of two novels set in Montana. Her first novel, Black River, was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Fiction, an ABA Indies Introduce title, an Indie Next pick, and the winner of the Reading the West Book Award. Her second novel, Eden Mine, won the Christianity Today Book Award for fiction and was an Amazon Best Books of the Year selection. Hulse received her MFA from the University of Oregon and has taught creative writing at several universities. An avid horsewoman, she has lived throughout the American West.
Congratulations to the winners, and many thanks to our judge, S.M. Hulse! Look for these stories in print in our forthcoming issue of CutBank 98.