Honors & Awards

“Things We Call Home”

2023 Third Prize, Letter Review, “The Coroner’s Version”

2022 ChipLit Short Story Contest, UK, “Kenny Winking,” first prize, Chipping Norton Literary Festival

https://www.chiplitfest.com/kenny-winking-2022-winner

2022 Cinematic Novel Contest from Screencraft, grand prize, for Paradise Undone: A Novel of Jonestown (no publication) https://screencraft.org/blog/2022-screencraft-cinematic-book-competition-winners/

2021 Notable Novel, First Chapter, Gutsy Great Novel Award, Paradise Undone: A Novel of Jonestown

2021, “The Closer You Were: The Less You Knew,”https://screencraft.org/2021/01/06/2020-2021-screencraft-cinematic-short-story-competition-quarterfinalists/

2021 Finalist, Novel Slices, Paradise Undone: A Novel of Jonestownhttps://www.novelslices.com/winners-finalists.html

2020 Winner, Gutsy Great Novel First Page Award, Standing Beside Love

2020 Finalist Paradise Undone: Stories of Jonestown, Orison Books

2020 Finalist Paradise Undone: A Novel of Jonestown Black Lawrence Press

2020 Long list, “Negroes and Jews Are Hereby Declared Aliens”: A Love Story https://www.grindstoneliterary.com/post/2020-novel-prize-winners prize

2019, semi-finalist, “Negroes and Jews Are Hereby Declared Aliens”: A Love Story, Hidden River Press

2019 Editor’s Reprint Award from Sequestrum for “The Closer You Were, the Less You Knew”

2019 Finalist, Paradise Undone: A Novel of Jonestown, Black Lawrence Press

2018, Winner, “Icarus,” short story, New Millenium

2018, The London Independent Story Project, second prize, for “The Locked Box in my Closet”

2018 Finalist, Paradise Undone: A Novel of Jonestown, Hidden River Press

2016 Finalist, North Street Book Prize, And Darkness Was Under His Feet: Stories of a Family

2016
FICTION CATEGORY WINNER!
The International Rubery Book Award for
York Ferry: A Novel 

2016 First Prize, Knut House: Music Prize Winner for “Sex and the Piano”
Click here for full list of winners. 

2015 “And Darkness Was Under His Feet” Honorable Mention, General Fiction, San Francisco Book Festival

2015 Finalist, Anna Davidson Rosenberg Poetry Award for “Laugh America Star” a sestina. 

2013 “Kenny, Winking,” Honorable Mention, GlimmerTrain Fiction Open

2013 “Homeless Camping Jump,” Honorable Mention, GlimmerTrain Fiction Open

Winner of the 2012 Dana Award in the essay for “All Thy Waves”

“Ten Days Before the End,” Honorable Mention, “Family Matters Contest,” GlimmerTrain Stories

2012 First prize for Non-Fiction for “Deeps” with the Northern Colorado Writers 

Flash Fiction first prize for “Nitza Kosher Pizza” with A Room of One’s Own Foundation

2009 Finalist, Next Generation Indie Book Awards, Short Story-Fiction, “And Darkness Was Under His Feet: Stories of a Family” 

2008 First Prize, Short Grain Magazine, Dramatic Monologue, “Mamelah’s Monologue”

2007 First Prize, Literal Latte Short-Short Fiction Contest; Litchfield Review Award for Short Fiction for “And Darkness Was Under His Feet: Stories of a Family” [collection]

2006 Second Prize, Abroad Writer’s Conference, Short Story Prize for“Knowing What We Know,” [section of “Jonestown”]

Selected “Colorado Voice” for The Denver Post, temporary columnist