James Gordon Bennett Wins Seventh Annual Danahy Fiction Prize

Photo by Jim Zietz,
LSU University Relations 

James Gorden Bennett of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has been selected as winner of the seventh annual Danahy Fiction Prize by the editors of Tampa Review. He will receive a cash award of $1,000 and his winning short story, “A Family of Interest,” will be published in a forthcoming issue of Tampa Review.

James Gordon Bennett is the author of two novels, My Father's Geisha (Delacorte 1990) and The Moon Stops Here (Doubleday 1994). His short fiction has appeared widely in journals including The Colorado Quarterly, The Kansas Quarterly, The Southern Review, The Michigan Quarterly Review, The Antioch Review, The Southern Humanities Review, The Western Humanities Review, Numen: New Southern Writing, The Northwest Review, Quarterly West, The Virginia Quarterly Review, St. Andrews Review, Louisiana Life, and The Gettysburg Review. His stories have been cited in Best American Short Stories and have been selected for Best New Stories from the South and the Pushcart Prize.

Bennett also has written book reviews for the The New York Times Book Review and published feature articles in Vogue and Glamour. He holds degrees from Johns Hopkins University and Stanford University and is Professor of English at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.


This year the judges also named seven finalists:

“Red, White & Blue” by Thomas M. Atkinson of Anderson Township, Ohio

“The Legacy System” by Cathy Carr of Montclair, N.J.

“Chain Smoking” by Olga Feciliano of Houston, Texas

“Born in the Caul” by Tori Malcangio of San Diego, Ca.

“Boy from Mirkwood” by James Moore of Tampa, Florida

“Complicity” by Jeffrey L. Schneider of Ellenville, N.Y.

“Q&A at the Film Fest” by Laura Maylene Walter, Cleveland, Ohio.

The Danahy Fiction Prize was established by Paul and Georgia Danahy as an annual award for a previously unpublished work of short fiction judged by the editors of Tampa Review. Previous winners are Douglas Danoff (2007), Kelly Luce (2008), Amina Gautier (2009), Joseph Colonna (2010), Heather Sappenfield (2011), and Mark Krieger (2012).

Tampa Review is the faculty-edited literary journal of the University of Tampa, published twice yearly in a distinctive hardback format. Subscriptions are $22 annually, and those received before June will include the issue featuring Bennett’s prize-winning story.

The Danahy Fiction Prize is open to both new and widely published writers, with an annual postmark deadline of November 1. The $20 entry fee includes a one-year subscription to Tampa Review, and all entries submitted are considered for publication.

Complete guidelines are available at www.ut.edu/TampaReview or by sending a self-addressed, stamped envelope to The Danahy Fiction Prize, University of Tampa Press, 401 West Kennedy Blvd., Tampa, FL 33606.