Creative non-fiction candidate Andrea Boucher, who writes under the pen name A. Lyn Carol, won the inaugural blurred genre contest at Redivider.
Boucher emerged from over three hundred entries with her flash nonfiction piece “Eleven Signs My Bipolar Moods are Cycling.” Contest judge Jerald Walker writes, “the writer so deftly builds her character on the page that you root for her as you would a relative or good friend, hoping against all evidence that she will suddenly, miraculously, break free of her disease.”
Enjoy a teaser from her winning essay which will be published later this summer:
#1: I’m productive and smart, gregarious and charming, a regular Miss Slyboots with my zingy repartee. I can’t imagine ever being sad, and I’m convinced I’ve finally beaten bipolar.
Then the UPS man teases me about how many packages he’s been delivering, and shame tingles through me. This is the first sign, when I realize I’ve been fooled yet again. But I can’t stop buying vixen boots I’ll never wear and bejeweled bauble rings I hate. Sweaty and compulsive, I lie to cashiers about why I’m buying the same sweater in red, purple, blue, and green. My good mood sours. I’m irritable. No one moves, drives, or talks fast enough.
Boucher is not the only Butler MFA who is already celebrating in 2016. CNF Alumnus Gerry Justice has a personal essay on Linked in, and Fiction Alumnus Earl Carrender was recently published at 101 Words.
CNF candidate Susan Lerner’s essay, “What you Need to Feed Your Baby“, was nominated for a Pushcart by Front Porch Journal. Poetry candidate Tracy Misken’s poem, “After the Mayo Clinic”, was nominated for a Pushcart by Parody Poetry Journal. Congratulations and best of luck!