Swan Song by Caroline Sidney is our February Contest Winner! Congratulations! Her story is short at only 4400 words yet her character, Odette speaks in an amazingly unique voice. It is such a great retelling of a woman kidnapped yet finding power in life outside of her medieval culture and situation. Based on Swan Lake, the ballet, Caroline has created a sense of urgency in her story as readers feel a looming choice or conflict with this happily empowered woman. Caroline is

First place winner of our Short Story Contest for January goes to a dark horse entry that gave us chills for it's perfect rendering of an original folk tale, Katie Sakanai. Katie is a musician who was born and raised in northeast Pennsylvania and the southern tier of New York. The only two radio stations that came in reliably were the oldies station and the country station, so her only connection to Kansas City before entering our contest was the famed Wilbert Harrison, she s