Thunk

That's the sound of my head hitting the floor after finding out my story "The Lethe Man," which appeared in Say . . . why aren't we crying?, has received an honorable mention for the Speculative Literature Foundation's Fountain Award. The Fountain's only two years old, but it's prestige is all the greater in my eyes because of the wide net it casts over speculative literature. The part that really makes my head spin, though, is seeing the other names who received honorable mentions: M. Rickert, Kelly Link, John Aegard, Katharine Haake, Douglas Lain, Sonya Taaffe, Katherin Nolte, Rebecca Curtis and Liz Williams. I haven't read all of their stories, but the ones I did read have stuck with me, and it's humbling to be placed in their company by judges as distinguished as Matthew Cheney, Gavin Grant, Patricia McKillip, Vandana Singh, and Alison Smith. So I can say with all sincerity that it's an honor to have been considered.

The winner of the 2004 Fountain is Jeffrey Ford, for his story "The Annals of Eelin-Ok," which appeared in The Faery Reel. I haven't read it yet, but I'll have to track down a copy now.

EDITED because in my stupor I neglected to publicly thank Gwenda Bond and Christopher Rowe for publishing the story. They're doing good work over there at the Fortress of Words, and if you haven't already you need to check it out.