The University of Iowa Press has announced the winners of the 2014 Iowa Short Fiction Awards. Both winners are women with ties to the academic world.
Heather A. Slomski, who held the Axton Fellowship in Fiction at the University of Louisville and taught English at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, was honored for her short story collection The Lovers Set Down Their Spoons. The judge for the competition said Slomski’s stories “comprise an implacable, uncommon contemplation of the systems of disquiet that underpin the common life.” Slomski earned a master of fine arts degree from Western Michigan University.
Kathleen Founds in an instructor in English at Cabrillo College in Watsonville, California. She is a graduate of Stanford University and holds a master of fine arts degree from Syracuse University. Founds is being honored for her short story collection When Mystical Creatures Attack. The interconnected stories take place in South Texas and range from funny to poignant.
Both collections will be published by the University of Iowa Press this fall.