A recent St. Cloud State University graduate has had a piece of fiction nominated for The Pushcart Prize, a highly-competitive literary honor.
Brianna Condon, who graduated this month with a BA in English Studies, authored an under-700 word flash fiction titled “Week Twenty-Nine”, which was published in the anthology “Tales from the Kitchen” earlier this month.
The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses series has been published annually for nearly 50 years and is a widely-read and respected literary project in the United States. Hundreds of presses and thousands of writers of short stories, poetry and essays have been represented since 1976.
“It is such an honor to have my work nominated for The Pushcart Prize,” Condon said. ” It’s a big, daunting leap from writing only for yourself to having your writing published for thousands of people to see. I am beyond grateful for the guidance and encouragement from Dr. Sarah Green and the English department faculty to put my writing out into the world, and I am excited to see what happens next.”
Condon wrote the entry in a creative writing workshop taught by English assistant professor Sarah Green last October. “Week Twenty-Nine” narrates one of many small moments of grief of a man who has lost his life partner as he now navigates life without her guidance and support.
“In twenty years of teaching, I have not heard of an undergraduate receiving a Pushcart nomination,” Dr. Green said, who had a poem included in the Pushcart anthology in 2008. “It’s an honor to be selected as one of a literary magazine’s ‘best of the year’ candidates, as it means the editors think they have a good shot at securing a prize for the author, which also brings prestige to the publication.”
The Pushcart Prize winners will be announced later in 2025.
