May 31, 2012, Ann Arbor, MI-Dzanc Books is pleased to announce that Anne Valente is the winner of our 2011 short story collection contest. Valente's manuscript, By Light We Knew Our Names, was selected from more than 250 submissions. This collection will be published in October 2014.
Steven Gillis, Publisher and Co-Founder at Dzanc Books, notes: "Anne's writing is unique as she has the capacity to create stories that are at once magical-with baby giraffes gift-wrapped and given as birthday presents-and at the same time entirely believable and personal. The characters in each of Anne's stories are real people, fully developed and fleshed out, and yet the tales told are also brilliantly imaginative and like no others."
"I just wanted to express how absolutely thrilled I am to be among the authors that Dzanc has published and will publish," Valente reacted. "I have been an admirer and avid reader of Dzanc's books for many years, and I couldn't be happier that my collection found a home with such an incredible press. Truly, this is a wonderful honor."
ABOUT ANNE VALENTE
Anne Valente's fiction appears or is forthcoming in Hayden's Ferry Review, CutBank, Sou'wester, Freight Stories and Bellevue Literary Review, among other journals, and her work was selected as a notable story in Best American Non-Required Reading 2011. Originally from St. Louis, she currently lives in Ohio where she teaches writing and literature.
FINALISTS
The short list of finalists consisted of collections from Tetman Callis, Pete Duval, Jessica Hollander, Ben Jahn, Pedro Ponce, Michael Sheehan, Stephen Tuttle, Anthony Varallo, Richard Weems, and Kellie Wells.
The long list also included collections from Thomas Barrett, Tanaz Bhathena, Daniel Chacon, Amy Clark, Josh Denslow, Gary Fincke, Scott Garson, Lisa Gornick, Katherine Hester, Patrick Hicks, Tom Hopkins, Jamie Iredell, Randa Jarrar, Andrea Kneeland, Victoria Large, Sarah Malone, Megan Martin, Sarah McCarty, Kate Milliken, Donald J. Modica, Andy Mozina, Daniel Mueller, Devin Murphy, Phong Nguyen, Paul Pedroza, Micah Perks, Caroline Picard, Liz Prato, Nick Ripatrazone, Terry Rogers, and Daniel Torday.
