Little Bird Stories, Volume 8

The Little Bird Writing Contest is an international contest exclusively for innovative, emerging short fiction writers. The contest opens each spring when the birds come back and showcases the excellent stories that come from Sarah Selecky Writing School.

The 2018 Little Bird contest winners responded to the writing prompt: Start your story with a balloon that has an unusual message. Use the words “lemon” and “ecstasy” somewhere in the story. End the story with an electrical storm.

Volume 8 features winning stories chosen by Scotiabank Giller Prize finalist Michelle Winters:

• “Sorry I was such a Dick” by Esther Griffin
• “Things Float Away” by Tracey McGillivray
• “To Weather a Storm” by Shoshana Gertler

Proceeds from anthology sales go towards the Pelee Island Bird Observatory and the Prince Edward Point Bird Observatory to help protect the real little birds out there.

Esther Griffin lives in Barrie, Ontario, where she teaches creative writing and English literature at Georgian College. She writes poetry, fiction, and graphic forms and is currently working on her thesis novel to complete her MFA in Creative Writing at UBC. Her poetry and fiction have been published in various anthologies. She can be found online at www.esthergriffin.ca.

Tracey McGillivray’s nonfiction has appeared in the Globe and Mail, Today’s Parent, and Don’t Talk To Me About Love. She grew up on a farm near Lake Huron and, after completing an MA in Journalism, worked in health care communications. Tracey lives in Toronto with her husband, two teens and two dogs. “Things Float Away” is her first published fiction.

Shoshana Gertler is a fiction writer living in New Jersey. She began writing stories at the same time that she began reading them. In 2017 she earned an MFA in fiction at The New School in New York City. She has published her work in a handful of newspapers and magazines.