English Department staff member wins short story contest

While forwarding announcements to Department of English Language and Literature faculty and students last fall, Administrative Secretary Megan Stevens noticed one that caught her eye: the Write Michigan Short Story Contest.

“I’d been working on a short story around that time, so I figured I’d give it a shot,” Stevens said.

She entered the contest and won the “Judges’ Choice” award for writers 18 and older. She received $500, and her story will appear in a forthcoming Write Michigan anthology.

Stevens' story, “Carrion Crow,” is about a folk singer coming home to deal with her father’s funeral and her relationship with her missing twin sister. 

“It was inspired by Connie Converse, who was a singer that just drove away from her life one day and was never seen again, and by Margaret MacArthur, who was a more traditional folk singer and musician,” Stevens said. “I thought the two of them sounded a little bit alike in recordings and figured, what if they were sisters?”

Sponsored by Write Michigan, this annual contest began in 2012 and is open to all Michigan residents. The contest is presented by the Kent District Library and Schuler Books in Grand Rapids.

Stevens holds a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing from Hope College.