Summer Fiction

Issue date:
May 16-18, 1997

Announcing the winners of our Student Fiction Contest

Charlottesville, Va., high school senior Stephanie Taylor is the grand prize winner in USA WEEKEND's third annual Student Fiction Contest.

Charlottesville, Va. high school senior Stephanie Taylor, who won the grand prize, says "I absorb everything around me" for inspiration.

Taylor receives a $2,000 scholarship for her winning short story, "Sugar Days," about two young teens and the issue of weight -- both physical weight and the weight of guilt. It will appear in a July issue of the magazine, capping off our 1997 Summer Fiction Series, featuring original works by best-selling authors like Jonathan Kellerman and Edna Buchanan.

Taylor, who reads USA WEEKEND in The Charlottesville Daily Progress, attends St. Anne's-Belfield School and plans to enter the University of Virginia this fall.

Her story was selected from among 4,856 submitted by ninth- through 12-graders from across the nation. Final judging was done by Executive Editor Amy Eisman and noted author and poet Ana Castillo, a contributor to the magazine's 1996 Summer Fiction Series.

Students drew on both personal experiences and pure fantasy to create an exciting array of stories: In one, a young woman changes her stories as quickly as she does boyfriends. In another, a wisecracking boy trapped on a long ride with his emotionally elusive father is in for a surprise. One story describes a power shift between dad and son during an August football game. And in another, a grandmother replays her life with different insight, depending on the mood of the moment.

As for "Sugar Days," Taylor says she began "with the basic image of two middle-school-aged friends, one with an eating disorder. From there, I let the characters write the story out themselves."

Castillo was impressed with the point of view Taylor chose. Rather than write in first-person voice, she used an "omniscient narrator," which takes greater skill. A good tip for other writers up for a challenge.

Each of these students receives a $75 gift certificate for books or software. Sponsoring teachers get $50 gift certificates.