Dear readers and writers,

In April, we launched a flash fiction contest and received 340 submissions, which we’re now nearly finished reading. We want to thank writers for their patience and perseverance. We will be announcing a longlist of finalists soon — and announcing the winner in late October. If you haven’t heard from us yet on the status of your piece, we apologize. You will soon.

With regard to other submissions, we want to remind writers that we are still closed to poetry submissions. Please wait to submit your work on October 1 or later. We also will temporarily close to all submissions beginning Monday, Nov. 22 (Thanksgiving week). This will enable us to catch up on reading the work that has already been submitted, and to begin notifying writers more quickly about their work.

In other news, we’re thrilled today to highlight the work we’ve nominated for Best of the Net awards. (To qualify, the work must have been published between July 1, 2020 and June 30, 2021.) Congratulations to all these writers:

Essays

Amen by Jennifer Lang

Bypasses by Gabriela Frank

Poetry

Because by Tara Campbell

Losing Heart by James Crews

Meditation on No Longer by Kitty Jospe

Moving the Sheep by Lisa Lopez Smith

At the Marigold Kitchen Cafe by Andrea Potos

My Father’s Witness by Fran Westwood

Fiction

Cannery Row by Dan Cardoza

Pissing Bullies by Rasmenia Massoud

 

We want to thank everyone who’s donated to The Sunlight Press this year. We are grateful for every contribution. If you’d like to support our nonprofit journal, it’s easy to do via PayPal, either with an existing account or by opting to pay by credit card. We also accept personal checks made out to The Sunlight Press, and mailed to us at PO Box 161, Merion Station, PA 19066. All donations are used solely to pay modest honorariums to the writers and artists whose work we publish.

We also want to thank our amazing volunteer staff , especially those volunteer readers who have stepped up this summer and fall to read and evaluate entries to our flash fiction contest: Caroline Packard, Kate Jones, Susan Pohlman, Elizabeth Spencer, and Amanda Steel. We are also grateful to our poetry editor, Clive Collins, and our new poetry reader Meg Freer, for their time and insights. All of you make our work here possible. Thank you!

Stay tuned for contest news in October, and until then, we hope you enjoy the colorful and cooler days of fall.

Warmly,

Rudri Bhatt Patel  and Beth Burrell
Founders and editors of The Sunlight Press