First Prize
A Yankee Trader by Kato McNickle
Groton, CT

First Runner Up
The Tropic of X by Caridad Svich
Los Angeles, CA

Second Runner Up
The Docent’s Son by Joshua Faigen
Newburyport, MA

Honorable Mentions (Alphabetically)

Moon Walkers by Elizabeth Benton Appell
Kentfield, CA

Indian Summer by Eddy Barrows
Fargo, ND

Eye of the Beheld by Lauren Gunderson
Decatur, GA

New World Rhapsody by Adam Kraar
Brooklyn, NY

Dearest Frank Lights a Cigar by Scott Munson
San Jose, CA

My River, My Valley by Ron Osborne
St Louis, MO

A Fragile Life by Shiva Rose
Los Angeles, CA

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF WINNING PLAYS

A Yankee Trader, by Kato McNickle, finds Dillon Taber down on his luck and the law at his doorstep. The old world is being re-invented all around the Tabers, who have been traders as long as anyone remembers but even a stubborn man must change with the times. In a moment of desperation, Dillon trades his wife for a car and goes on the run to keep his freedom. Amidst the ever-increasing fury of the Great Hurricane of 1938, Dillon’s bargain brings personal disaster and transformation as the storm wreaks havoc all around him.

The Tropic of X, by Caridad Svich, set on an unnamed Caribbean island, is a colorful and often disturbing passage through a vivid dreamscape of world in decay as seen through the eyes of a pair of predatory young toughs. Played out against a vivid backdrop of video arcades, old and new drugs, internet cafes, ever-changing regimes, political repression, worthless currency, cheap sex, discos, peeling houses, fresh murals on ruined walls, spin, greed and the limitless dirty sea, the strange journey of Mori and Maura becomes a meditation on wretched excess in a world gone mad where all that remains is the sound of the human voice.

The Docent’s Son, by Joshua Faigen, weaves an eloquent theatrical canvas from the rich inner life of a museum docent struggling to accept a profound loss. Deftly threading between the realms of light and shadow, reality and fantasy, love and loss, she fights to balance grief, forgiveness, and acceptance through the language of an abstract painting.