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2008 Contest - Winning writer, final judge, text of winning story, and list of finalists

2007 Contest - Winning writer, final judge, text of winning story, and list of finalists

Winning stories and authors from past years

Text of winning stories

Final judges from past years

For more information...

Mary Parker of Grinnell College Named 2004 Winner for Her Story "Entropy"

Press release April 28, 2004

Mary Parker, a sophomore at Grinnell College, has been named the winner of the 32nd annual ACM Nick Adams Short Story Contest. Ms. Parker's story, "Entropy," was selected from the 45 stories submitted by students from ACM colleges.

Professors Leslie Hankins of Cornell College and Jim Dawes of Macalester College served as initial faculty readers for the contest, selecting the six finalists from which the final judge made her choice. Elizabeth Crane, a novelist and author of numerous short stories, served as the final judge for the contest this year, which carries with it a first prize of $1,000, made possible through a generous gift from an anonymous donor.

In commenting on Ms. Parker's story, Ms. Crane wrote:

I found "Entropy" to be extremely moving in its portrait of a relationship in the face of this crisis, with finely drawn characters and written in a fresh way with the scientific focus -- it can be difficult to write in second person successfully, but I feel this author has done a great job. My congratulations to the author.

Mary Parker is an English and French double major at Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa. Currently in her second year, Ms. Parker originally wrote this story during her senior year of high school for a creative writing class at the University of Arkansas.

After she graduates from Grinnell, Ms. Parker plans to go to graduate school and eventually to teach English, possibly abroad. She comments, "I can't remember a time when I wasn't interested in writing -- I composed my first 'poem' at the age of two or three and my parents recited it for years afterward." Ms. Parker would like to thank Erin Shirl, Martha McNair, and her family for their support.

Text of "Entropy" by Mary Parker

2004 Finalists

The six finalists and their stories were:

• Peter Likarish, Grinnell College -- "Kitsune" (Honorable Mention)
• Danika Leslie Sasha Maddocks, Macalester College -- "You're Breaking Up"
• Mary Parker, Grinnell College -- "Entropy" (Winner)
• Maggie Queeney, Knox College -- "The Deaf Hear Like This"
• Laura Schechter, The College of the University of Chicago -- "The Dead Space"
• Jennifer Walton-Wetzel, Macalester College -- "The Armors"

Elizabeth Crane Serves as the 2004 Final Judge

Press release February 20, 2004

Elizabeth Crane has agreed to serve as the professional judge for the 2004 Nick Adams Short Story Contest. She is the author of When the Messenger is Hot, a collection of short stories published in January 2003 by Little, Brown and Company.

USA Today describes When the Messenger is Hot as a collection that "explores love and its many permutations, from sexual passion to the illusion of young love now remembered to grief over a mother's death (at 63) to a lonely protagonist's relationship with a ghost baby."

The sixteen stories in the collection are written in a conversational and rambling tone, and Crane employs first- and second-person narratives, footnotes, and other unique literary mechanisms in her writing.

In an article recently published at powells.com, Crane noted, "As a writer, whatever ends up inspiring you, you hope that your writing is its own thing…" ("On the Subject of Influences Blatant, Less Blatant, Random or Otherwise").

Crane's first collection of stories, When the Messenger is Hot has received strong reviews. The Washington Post calls it "a boldly original collection," and the Chicago Tribune praises the stories as "unique, intriguing, and often hilarious." The New York Times Book Review comments, "Crane has a distinctive and eccentric voice that is consistent and riveting from the first story to the last, and When the Messenger is Hot expresses a remarkably strong and coherent artistic vision."

Elizabeth Crane grew up in Manhattan, received a degree in communications from The George Washington University, and worked odd jobs in New York for a number of years, as a video store clerk, waitress, substitute teacher, and talent booker. In 1994 she worked in Chicago for six months while tutoring Macaulay Culkin's siblings. Crane moved to Chicago for good in 1996, took a job as a preschool teacher, and began to write seriously.

Crane's short stories have been featured in publications including The Sycamore Review, Washington Square, New York Stories, Book, The Florida Review, Eclipse, Bridge Magazine, Sonora Review, and the Chicago Reader. Crane was the winner of the Chicago Public Library's 21st Century Award in 2003, and her second book of stories, All This Heavenly Glory, will be published by Little, Brown and Company in 2005.

More information is available on Elizabeth Crane's Web site.