By Lori DeBoer
I feel very grateful to have my short story “Twenty-Five Random Things About Me” nominated by the editors and staff of The Saranac Review for the Pushcart Prize. The story was published in the October 2018 issue. The Pushcart Prize is an annual literary prize that honors the best writing published in American literary magazines. The Pushcart Press has been publishing a volume of the winners every year since 1976. A portion of the story was read at a celebratory party held by the staff at SUNY Plattsburgh.
The story is about a girl who is haunted by the death of her best friend after she returns to her hometown to live with her mother. It is written in an experimental format, inspired by the Facebook writing prompt of the same name. I was inspired to write it after visiting a small town in Colorado and seeing an out-of-the-way, informal shrine to a girl who had been murdered. It is part of a collection of short stories I completed for my master’s thesis in creative writing at Arizona State University in which I explore the impact the missing and dead have on those left behind.
It was an honor to have my short story published in The Saranac Review and am also thankful to my husband and kiddo for supporting my writing endeavors.
