Buy Saints + Sinners: New Fiction from the Festival 2011

Saints + Sinners: New Fiction from the Festival 2011

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Synopsis

Saints and Sinners 2011: New Fiction from the Festival contains a mixture of short fiction representing many genres and styles as well as a diverse number of themes and experiences. The completely-blind, three-tier judging process that was used yield what we think is a wonderful set of stories. We were honored to have John Berendt, author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, as the final selection judge for the 2011 contest.

We have included nine stories from the contest in this volume. The winning story, “Fishwives” by Sally Bellerose, is a sad but funny romantic tale of two lesbians living their final years together in poverty. The two runners-ups, “The Kindness of Strangers” by John Morgan Wilson, which is set in the Castro during the Reagan era and shows the stark realities of the early victims while capturing an intimate slice of AIDS history, and “Everyone Has a Shazam!” by Felice Picano, recounts a surprise reunion at a book signing that leads to reminiscing about college days and an unexpected adventure in the Hampton, are as different from each other as, well, as Saints and Sinners. The remaining finalist stories included in this volume are by David-Matthew Barnes, Nathan Burgoine, J.R. Greenwell, Jeff Lindemann, Tasha C. Miller and John Morgan Wilson.

In addition to the finalists from the Second Annual Short Fiction Contest, we are honored to include stories from “Festival Favorites.” We have wonderful new works from four past attendees—Noel Alumit, Suzanne Hudson, Cecilia Tan, and Joe Formichella.

Review

Saints and Sinners: New Fiction from the Festival 2011 is another collection of short stories collected from the New Orleans festival where proceeds support the New Orleans AIDS Task Force. I love the concept of raising money for the AIDS Task Force and I applaud the efforts of the festival for doing so and for providing new authors a chance.

Saints and Sinners provides the perfect opportunity to escape for a few brief moments in time or devour the book in one entire sitting. As a collection of shorts, you are never in one place very long and are quickly transported to new plots and characters, keeping it fresh and inviting. Not all stories are overtly gay, but this is not at all a distraction or disappointment. Themes range from subtle to obvious and, again, result in a refreshing change of pace. Of course, the beauty of a shorts collection is that if you don’t like one story, you will quickly be finished or you can just skip it. However, I wouldn’t recommend skipping, as each one is a journey into the author’s fantasy world and worthy of your perseverance.

Personally, I am not a fan of short stories, as I want more character development and want to escape into the emotion of the characters. However, I found Saints and Sinners to be a great for starting my day with a quick story, for 30 minutes of downtime, or as a great way to ease into a Sunday morning. For whatever reason you try this book, you will not be disappointed in the range and depth of stories that will be yours.

-- Tom Jr.