Big Muddy Announces Winner and Finalists of the 2019 Mighty River Short Story Contest

We are excited to announce the winner and finalists for the Mighty River Short Story Contest. The winner will be published in the upcoming issue of Big Muddy, and will receive $1,000. Picking a winner this year was quite difficult due to the many, many, many excellent stories we received.

This year’s winner is:
“Payback for Mongoose Charlie” by Bryce Berkowitz

Bryce Berkowitz is the author of *Bermuda Ferris Wheel*, winner of the 42 Miles Press Poetry Award (forthcoming 2020). His writing has appeared or is forthcoming in *Best New Poets*, *New Poetry from the Midwest*, *The Sewanee Review*, *Ninth Letter*, *Nashville Review*, and other publications. He teaches at Butler University.

This year’s finalists were:

“No Matter Her Leaving” by Noley Reid
“Where the False Have a Merry Time” by Basmah Sakrani
“Geraniums for Autumn” by Sarah Elizabeth Schantz
“The River and the Change it Brings” by Rebecca Wurtz

Now, this is usually the part where I’d encourage everyone to submit again for this year’s contest. Unfortunately, we won’t be running the contest in 2020. Reading contest submissions on top of non-contest submissions, and keeping up with other work for Big Muddy and Southeast Missouri State University Press is…a lot. This isn’t a financial decision at all, as these contests pay for themselves. Once we’ve had a bit of a breather, the contest will likely come back, but for the time being, we need a break! Thank you all for sharing your wonderful words with us, and I hope to read more from you all in the future.

Sincerely,
The Big Muddy Editorial Team