Longlisted for the 2020 Voyage YA Short Story Award Content warning: sexual assault . force-ripe in British English Caribbean ADJECTIVE 1. (of fruit) prematurely picked and ripened by squeezing or warm storage 2. precocious, esp. sexually (The Collins Dictionary) . Earlier today you spent eleven minutes perched on a rock by Lake Mekhi watching a great blue heron fish. You methodically […]
Longlisted for the 2020 Voyage YA Short Story Award . It wasn’t until my anxious leg-swinging started moving my desk that I finally clicked “send” and closed my laptop. I chewed my nails and glanced at the vintage photograph sitting next to my phone. It was only half a photo, the edges frayed and weathered. […]
Longlisted for the 2020 Voyage YA Short Story Award . It is lonely up here on the moon. No, there is no cheese. Everything is rock, rock, rock. I watch the people from far away. I can see through cloud and star and sky. I watch the people while Father works. He is big and […]
Finalist in the Voyage YA Short Story Award Content warning: references to death . “Raspberry or lemonade?” Jacinta rested her head against the passenger window. Outside, a scrawny misfit with an outdated footy jersey and IQ one quarter the going rate for diesel manned the pump, a faraway look in his eye. “Jaz? Raspberry or […]
Content warning: references to death, suicide, abuse, rape . It comes as no surprise when the five village elders come for me an hour before sunset on the longest night of the year. I answer their knock and greet them with a stone face. Though I have only fifteen winters to my name, Father always […]
Finalist in the 2020 Voyage YA Short Story Award . 12:03 a.m. I never thought I’d sneak out of the bathroom window to get away from Zach, but here I am. The wood on the Gals cabin windowsill has splintered over the years, poking into my soft stomach as I heave myself forward. Maybe going […]
Finalist in the 2020 Voyage YA Short Story Award . I was listening to the new Say Anything album when I saw Kyle McCormick for the first time. I didn’t mean to stare when he walked into the school library, but there was something about him that made me feel off-balance. He was chewing gum […]
Finalist in the 2020 Voyage YA Short Story Award . It is the kind of night where the wind keens in the rafters, so strong against the walls that the windows groan with it. The hearth is an oasis, even though the flames flicker like an omen. You hover over its warmth. Stew bubbles over […]
Finalist in the 2020 Voyage YA Short Story Award . the first time you kiss him it is—you swear—an accident. you don’t know what comes over you; you’ve just managed to successfully shift only your eyes for the first time and Graham is cheering and you’re so close to him and you lean across the […]
Third Place Winner of the 2020 Voyage YA Short Story Award judged by Natalia Sylvester, author of the YA novel, Running . 1. He’ll catch you by surprise, believe me. It’ll be subtle, unexpected. When he shows up at soccer tryouts your freshman year, he’ll just be a stranger, a boy you didn’t know you needed until your […]
Second Place Winner of the 2020 Voyage YA Short Story Award judged by Natalia Sylvester, author of the YA novel, Running . Some people know they can live without their hearts. At least, the people who see the world for what it really is. People who know spirits manifest in shadows, who knock twice on doorframes before […]
First Place Winner of the 2020 Voyage YA Short Story Award judged by Natalia Sylvester, author of the YA novel, Running . “Do you remember the old world?” Grammy asks me. Her bony hand is a cage around mine, squeezing too hard as she stares off the path. “We used to eat creatures like that.” She’s looking at […]