The Winners of Narrative's 30Below Contest have been announced!

Here's the list of names of 18-30 year olds that won...
...mine's not one of them.

The official rejection email came a few weeks ago, this was just yet another reminder.
It's not the first time I've been rejected from Narrative, I've twice submitted the story that was published in my university's literary journal, once for a "first-person" contest and then for the under 30. Both contest made me think I had a leg up, something that made me think winning just a tiny bit more likely than your average, all-takers literary submission, especially the 30Below, which gave me hope that I wouldn't be competing with career professionals. Alas, I'll be sending the story back to worshop, once I get time in my schedule to fit in another class. Until then, I'll console myself with this post sent my way by a Casperian Books author. They're one of my favorite independent publishers and I recently finished an great anthology from their newest authors called And Now For a Story... that rekindled my excitement for the short story.

By the way...The minute I get that acceptance letter this thing's coming off the anonymous setting and I'm shouting my name to the world!