We are pleased to announce that our 2024 Contest Judge, Allegra Hyde, has selected a winner and two runners-up as well as four honorable mentions from a slate of finalists and semi-finalists for North American Review's 2024 Kurt Vonnegut Prize in Speculative Fiction. A big thank you to everyone who submitted a story for the prize. We had 440 entries this year, our largest contest to date, and we thoroughly enjoyed reading such an abundance of excellent fiction. The winner will appear in the Summer 2024 issue of North American Review, and all entrants will receive a copy.
Winner
“Lovesick” — Jason Fernandes
Runners-Up
“Water, Mud, Ink, Blood” — Latifa Ayad
“Conversation with Gertrude, Age 20.” — Evan Ramzipoor
Honorable Mentions
“Cody/Mika” — John Rex
“Reach Out” — Danielle Sherman
“The Harvest” — Katie Field
“The Pain is Only Temporary” — Lela Cermin
Finalists
“Lost & Found” — Dorothy Nguyen
“Becoming Water” — Bec Bell-Gurwitz
“Promised Land” — Ethan Cunningham
Semifinalists
“Midstream in the Ripples of Collective Time” — Kittisak Kongka
“Wilhelm” — Paul Watson
“Thoughts” — Jennifer Romero
“Abodon the Ant” — Andrew Kozelka
“The Tal of Katori” — Gianni Damaia
“The Disappearing” — Abigail Waters
“Swish and Swirl” — Trudy Lewis
“Floating Island” — Raizel Labuntog
“Song of the Gargoyles” — Wendy Mages
“The Gift of an Apple” — Alisha Davis
“Finding Flora” — Rachel Foley
“The Mask” — Jacob Fox
“Red Flags in the Subdivision” — Doug Crandell
“The Stars in Her Upstairs” — Lisa Dulin
About the Judge
ALLEGRA HYDE is the author of the story collection The Last Catastrophe, an Editors’ Choice selection for The New York Times. Her debut novel Eleutheria was named a “Best Book of 2022” by The New Yorker, shortlisted for the VCU Cabell First Novelist Prize, named a finalist for the Ohioana Book Award, and featured on Late Night with Seth Meyers. Her first story collection, Of This New World won the John Simmons Short Fiction Award. Hyde has received four Pushcart Prizes. Her fiction, nonfiction, and humor writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, American Short Fiction, BOMB, and many other venues. She currently teaches at Oberlin College.