The following four stories were picked as the best examples of prose fiction by a professor of Creative Writing at the university level. Congratulations to these students and to the runners-up, all of whom demonstrated great imagination and a dedication to the craft of writing:

Zachary Alapi: his story, “JUGS,” is an alternately humorous, ribald and poignant tale of a young man attending a strict Jesuit school who is attempting to discover his sexuality while wrestling with the issues of faith and imposed morality.

Veronica Mineyko: her story, “Mute,” tells the tale of a girl who is victimized yet seeks to break free of her silent compliance. It is a story that skillfully blends the tension of her passive outer actions with her inner conflict, told in a finely wrought stream -of- consciousness style.

Natasha Neishaboory : her story, “Shock Therapy,” is a humorous tale of sexual revenge that hinges on the protagonist’s unique method of achieving cathartic closure after her breakup with her lover.

Katherine Velghe: her story, “Noir,” is a bitter-sweet tale of a young man who is both a social outcast and is rejected by his own family, yet is a romantic at heart who finds his own form of redemption in classic black and white movies.

The Runners-up:

 The following students’ stories were picked as also among the best in the class:

Marina Corsillo

Allison Marshall

Maria Trochei

Sandra Trochei

Stephanie Wong

Last Updated: May 10, 2006