Write Michigan 2016 Anthology

“Stories are brief encapsulations of the human experience. The ones in this anthology provide us with respite and ritual. These writers have offered them to us, and now it’s our turn: to house them in our minds, to share in their telling, and to relish the secrets they speak just to us.”

— Adam Schuitema, from his foreword to Write Michigan 2016 Anthology

In its fourth year, the Write Michigan Short Story Contest is not so secret any longer. We are delighted this year to have crossed the bridge with several entries from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula! This statewide contest offers opportunities for writers in three categories—11 and under, 12–17 years old, and age 18 and older—with three cash prizes awarded in each category.

The stories in this anthology are among the nearly 500 submitted between September 1 and November 30, 2015. A group of 100 volunteers initially screen the stories, two of them reading and rating each story anonymously to determine our top ten semifinalists in each category. A panel of judges, most published authors themselves, then review the semifinalists’ stories to see which ones shine the brightest, while the public cast 3,152 votes for their favorites.

With this anthology, we share in the telling of some of the best stories imagined by Michigan writers. Printed in these pages are eighteen stories, including the Judges’ Choice, Judges’ Choice Runner-Up, Readers’ Choice, and published finalists in each of the three categories.

Visit www.writemichigan.org for information on the Write Michigan Contest.