2nd place winner in Cambridge Short Story Prize 2025

I rarely enter writing contests, not because I don’t believe in my work, but more because I’ve been to Vegas. The odds.

So it was with a bit of what-the-heck that I tossed a story into the Cambridge Short Story Prize 2025 competition earlier this year, sponsored by TSS Publishing, the folks behind The Short Story web site. Imagine my shock to learn that I had placed second?

I want to get one of those big foam fingers that has a We’re #2 on it, so I can put it on my hand and pump it up and down at appropriate occasions. Not sure what those would be, but you get the idea. This and a bottle of Coke qualify me as much as anyone for the Nobel. Hey, maybe President Trump and I could share a room?

But on second thought …

Anyway, if you’re interested, here’s a link to the story. It’s a bit dark, informed by the painful experience of someone I knew long ago.