I just got word from my good friend Andrea Kail that her story “The Sun God at Dawn, Rising From a Lotus Blossom” was selected as first prize winner in the Writers of the Future contest. Yay!
I met Andrea years ago at an Odyssey alums dinner, but I had never read anything of hers, since she always said that nothing she’d written was ready for public scrutiny. Then last May she sent me a copy of “Sun God,” and I was blown away. Checking the email I wrote then, I see that I remarked “this is f***ing brilliant” and “If you can write like that, I don’t understand why you aren’t publishing. Are you sending stuff out?” She was sending stuff out, but only barely. A short time later, her story “Soft, Like a Rabbit” was accepted by Fantasy magazine. “Sun God” received maybe the most enthusiastic response I ever saw from my now-defunct New York writers workshop, the legendarily unenthused 8th of February Group. I also put “Sun God” on my list of best stories I read recently. I’m thrilled that the WotF judges concurred. Congratulations, Andrea!
I am blessed with an embarrassment of talented friends. I should also note that Carol Pinchefsky recently sold her first piece to the New York Times. Watch for her Modern Love essay “I Didn’t Marry Him for His Money, I Swear” in this Sunday’s Style section.
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