All submissions were judged with the authors’ names removed. The top 10 stories were selected by CL Staff and Lisa Birnbaum, Associate Professor of English and Writing at the University of Tampa; readers voted for their favorites from those 10, and Lisa chose the Judge's Prize. The top 10 poems and the Judge's Prize in poetry were selected by Donald Morrill, Dana Professor of English at UT; again, online voting yielded the Readers' Pick. (Fun fact: Lisa and Don are married to each other; since the theme of this year's contest was, simply, love, we thought their coupledom apt for the occasion.)
We can't tell you yet who won the top prizes. Those will be announced Wed., Feb. 7, from 7-9 p.m. at CL Space (1911 N. 13th St., Ybor City, Tampa) during our Writing Contest Awards & Issue Release Party (gotta come up with a shorter name for this event in the future; writers, your suggestions are welcome). The winning stories and poems will be published in CL in print and online on Thurs., Feb. 8.
Meanwhile, here are the names of the finalists, in alpha order by story or poem title with links to the works on cltampa.com:
Poetry
After~Hurricane Irma: Victoria Dym
Another Crazy in Love: Myrna Shuman
Below the Belt: Brooks Peters
Bombshell: Liz Prisley
Boombada: Dominic Howarth
Christmas: Victoria Dym
First-person: Lee Noto
I Like a Little Trouble in My Life: Linda Shepherd
I Remember: Jonathan Tennis
The Mower: Victoria Dym
Fiction
Fully Loaded Love, with Optional Extras: Brian Lott
Grasp: Jan Neuberger
Haunted: Dominic Howarth
The Opposite of Love: Laura Kepner
Our Love Set in Rooms: Stephen Kanaval
Over and Done: Kim Hackett
The Quizzical Beginnings to a Brand New Shiny Shiny Shiny Love: Paul Moore
Salvador: Cameron McNabb
This Is the Worst Day of Your Life (A Love Scene): Brian Lott
Yontif: Shirley Copperman
This article appears in Feb 1-8, 2018.