Congratulations to Josh Emmons, Winner of the Kinder/Crump Award!

Pleiades congratulates Josh Emmons, winner of this year’s Kinder/Crump Award for Short Fiction, judged by Anjanette Delgado. He will receive an award of $1,000 and his winning story, “There Is a Field, I’ll Meet You There,” will be published in the Fall 2024 issue of Pleiades.

Josh Emmons has published two novels and a story collection, plus work in magazines and book anthologies. He lives in Southern California and has just completed a new novel, The Acrobats.

Of the winning story, Anjanette Delgado writes:

“I believe short fiction is among the most difficult of literary forms to pull off believably because writers have a very short time to make the feelings of ages read true. It’s part of why I chose “There Is a Field, I’ll Meet You There” by Josh Emmons. The story of a difficult elderly mother taken for the last things she has left by her not-quite-reformed ex-con gardener is pitch perfect and believable all the way through. The writer crafts an original situation as told from the adult son’s point of view. The mother-son relationship is clear and contradictory and annoying and heartbreaking in ways both expected and unexpected. Best is how we see all the characters clearly without excess exposition.  How the story grabs us from the first few lines and takes us where it’s going at expert pace. That this story does all that with such beauty and restrained lyricism while also highlighting important societal themes, is a feat. Bravo.”

The editors would also like to recognize the finalists for this year’s Kinder/Crump Award:

Hope Taglich, “Bill Rainey Park”

Tara Lindis, “Swim Lesson”

Melanie Ritzenthaler, “Every Way to Kill a Man, Every Way to Save Him”

Pleiades thanks all those who submitted to this year’s award; we are grateful to have had the opportunity to read your work.