It’s not easy to summarize an entire year in 10 abbreviated news stories.


Or is it?

The second installment of SFR’s annual writing contest winners, this issue features the top nonfiction and poetry entries. Nonfiction writers were charged with creating a narrative around corruption—whether in its traditional, political incarnation or in a more figurative sense, as demonstrated by Arianna Sullivan’s winning entry, “Cigarettes.” Poetry entries had to relate to the much-vaunted impending apocalypse—an “ode to the end of the world” of sorts. And as Michele Heeney’s third-place poem illustrates, the end of the world doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Congratulations to this year’s winners!

Cigarettes
By Arianna Sullivan

The Inquisition of Dr. George Tiller by the State of Kansas
By Dianne R Layden

Paradise Corrupted
By Paula Nixon

The Boundary Waters
By Daniel Bohnhorst

Jaguar Spotted in Hidalgo County
By Wayne Lee

The Last Mayan Calendar By Michele Heeney

This year’s writing contest reflects a few themes from the political, environmental and philosophical rollercoaster that was 2011. Nonfiction writers, whose stories will be published Dec. 7, were charged with reporting on corruption—either in its traditional form as the scourge of New Mexico politics or in one of its myriad interpretations. Poets write about the impending apocalypse in their “odes to the end of the world.” Fiction writers were given free rein in terms of subject matter, but had to include the words “Texas cowboy,” “fire” and “crazy eyes” somewhere in their stories. By SFR’s unofficial tally, we received a record number of submissions; the winners represent the very best of some very good writing.

Mike’s Murder
By Chandler McMillin