1st Place: Patricia Remick for "Arlene in a Pickle"
Pat Remick is an award-winning mystery short story author and non-fiction writer. Her short stories have appeared in various anthologies, and she has co-authored two professional development books. A veteran print, wire service, TV, and web journalist, Pat retired in 2021 from the Natural Resources Defense Council, where she was a press officer for that international environmental organization. She serves on the national Sisters in Crime membership committee and is editor of the newsletter for the Mid-Atlantic chapter of Mystery Writers of America. She recently was elected to the Board of Directors of the large Washington, D.C., co-op building where she resides with her husband--and suspects her experiences may inspire even more mystery stories. Pat’s love of travel has taken her to 48 states thus far. Favorite locations include wherever her two adult sons are residing and Arizona!
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2nd Place: Janet Alcorn for "The Fourth Man"
Janet Alcorn is a librarian who launched a lifelong dream by Googling, “how to write a novel,” on a slow afternoon at work. Since that fateful day, her short stories have been published in the 2021 Deathlehem anthology, the Storyteller Series podcast, and the Arizona Authors Association annual literary magazine. When she isn’t wrangling cantankerous fictional people or earning a living, Janet gardens, listens to 80s rock at ear-bleeding volume, and hangs out in Tucson with her husband and son. She’s lived in 5 states and 3 time zones, the majority of the time in Northern California (where she was born and raised) and Portland, Oregon. Learn more about Janet at janetalcorn.com or follow her on Twitter (@ja_alcorn) or Facebook (facebook.com/authorjanetalcorn).
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3rd Place: Thomas Andes for "Death Gets in the Nostrils"
Tom Andes’ writing has appeared in Best American Mystery Stories 2012, Santa Monica Review, and is forthcoming in Red Headed Writing, an anthology inspired by the music of Willie Nelson from Cowboy Jamboree Press. He won the 2019 Gold Medal for Best Novel-in-Progress from the Pirate's Alley Faulkner Society. He works as a freelance editor, does various side gigs, and moonlights as a country singer. He released his debut EP of original country and blues songs, “Static on Every Station” on Bandcamp in 2022, with the follow-up, "Those LA Nights" arriving in December 2023. More at www.tomandes.com.
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Honorable Mentions
- Thomas Andes for "Deadhead"
- Ryan Oakley for "Stinger"
- D.R. Ransdell for "Bad Advice"
