The Tundra Prize Winner, 2004

The Emily Chesley Reading Circle announces with great pride, the winner of our Annual Dr. Maximilian Tundra Memorial Poetry and Short Speculative Fiction Contest.

• Susan Wing's "Beyond the Bodice" won the 2004 Tundra Prize.

Naomi Nash:
"Illusion," quipped Oscar Wilde, "is the first of all pleasures." In the story, "Beyond the Bodice," both pleasure and illusion reign supreme, romping over the Ufondylan countryside like Chinese honeysuckle gone wild during spring break from an excess of nitrogen-rich hooch. A rich and fascinating morass of political intrigue, secret identities, and inflatable roosters, it inhales deeply the rich ironies of life, nourishes itself with their vigor, and exhales with the faintest scent of bordello perfume and spirit gum. I wish I had written it. By which I more specifically mean, I wish I had not read it whilst sipping port over the delicate electronic keyboard of my laptop.

Martin Archer:
"Beyond the Bodice" is very funny and quite clever. The references to the reader, and the melodrama remind me of "The Princess Bride". It's quite a charming tale that leaves me wanting more -- from the same writer and from the same melodramatic adventures.

Laudable Mentions (in no particular order) go to:

• Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon for "The Dinner Party"
• Katherine Grosjean for "Something in the Air"
• Alexandra Fox for "How to Dress Like a Puffin"
• Rodney Dickinson for "A Letter".

Watch on the Fiction & Poetry part of the site for these stories and more.  You can read all the past winners in The Meanderings of the Emily Chesley Reading Circle

It is with some sadness that The Circle announces that it will no longer be accepting poetry for the Tundra Prize. However, we will extend the range of fictions that may be submitted for the 2005 contents.