Best New Writing 2011 On Sale Now

Jim Musgrave’s award-winning story, “Letter to the President of the United States,” appears along with 15 other excellent stories in this year’s Eric Hoffer Award Winners.  You can purchase a copy online today.

Jim’s story is a psychological drama that takes place at the beginning of the war in Iraq in 2003.  An Iraqi engineer who worked for Saddam Hussein has lost his memory due to traumatic events, and a U. S. Marine Sergeant and Arab-American translator gets his psychiatrist father to assist him in recovering the engineer’s memory along with what might be called his “soul.”

Jim Musgrave’s Story Makes Hoffer Award Short List

Eric Hoffer Prose Award Short List

As the annual judging draws to a close, a small set of grand prize award finalists is announced for the Eric Hoffer Award for Prose. This small list or “short list” of finalists is an honored distinction of its own and is announced publicly during the summer of each award year. Below are the current short-listed entries in alphabetical order by author:

2010
Jim Musgrave, “Letter to the President of the United States of America”
Deborah Rise McMenamy, “Love, Like Stew”
Adam King, “Outer Spaces”
Talia Carner, “The Maidens and the Messiah”
Beverly Akerman, “The Sea of Tranquility”
Rachel Maczuzak, “Wasted”

“What Were You When You Were Alive?” Audio Story

I presented this to the Grossmont College Annual Literary Arts Festival. By chance, their theme was my theme as well, “The Writer as Activist.” I, like Albert Camus, often tend to be an Absurdist, but my political motives are sound and clear. View the simple trailer for this piece (available for .88 cents at Sniplits.com):