Omnidawn’s Fabulist Fiction Chapbook Prize Winner, selected by Jeff VanderMeer:
James Robert Herndon (Atlanta, Georgia)
for Mammals
Five finalists were selected by Jeff VanderMeer:
- Ben Black (Santa Clara, California) for Members of the Board and Other Stories
- Marie Brennan (San Mateo, California) for La Molejera
- Liz Gilbert (Kansas City, Missouri) for Jesse in Common
- Katharine Haake (Los Angeles, California) for Assumptions We Might Make About the World
- Ingrid Silverstein (Sharon, Massachusetts) for The Suicide Artist
A unique tale of love, commitment and redemption. In “Mammals,” an orphaned teenager sent to juvenile detention because of a violent crime becomes part of an odd experiment to see if he can learn about compassion and also teach it to another living creature. The story displays sensitivity without sentimentality and a sense of the strange that is grounded in very real emotions. A thoughtful and unusual gem.
Jeff VanderMeer
James Robert Herndon lives in Atlanta, Georgia. He is a graduate of the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers and the Clarion West Writers Workshop. His fiction has appeared in Halfway Down the Stairs and is forthcoming in an anthology of stories by Clarion West Graduates. When not writing, he enjoys woodworking and being outside with his wife.