The 2004 Robert Olen Butler Prize Stories, the best of the best short fiction, featuring a story by E. R. Catalano, selected by Robert Olen Butler

These eleven stories--E. R. Catalano's winning story, "News from My Father," and ten finalists--show the range possible in the contemporary literary short story and offer a snapshot of some of the best writing by established and emerging literary talents.

From a pool of over six hundred stories, some published in very well-known journals, and many unpublished, our panel of readers selected these ten finalists, the best of the best, in 2004. E.R. Catalano's winning story, "News from My Father," was chosen from these finalists by our 2004 judge, Robert Olen Butler himself, who has this to say about the story:

"‘News from My Father' is a clear winner. The author has a fine— and all too rare—grasp of the essential characteristic of outstanding literary fiction, the need for manifest yearning in the central character. The narrative voice is clean and fluent and the story never loses sight of the human truths beneath the surface."

The Winner and Finalists:

• E. R. Catalano, "News from My Father" (2004 Winner)
  
• Thomas P. Balazs, "Omicron Ceti III"
• Ariana-Sophia Kartsonis, "Sundress"
• Roy Kesey, "Invunche y Voladora"
• Gloria DeVidas Kirchheimer, "Malika"
• Karen Kovacik, "My Polish Widower"
• Dylan Landis, "Jazz"
• Kelly Magee, "Not People, Not This"
• Lynn Veach Sadler, "Miss Spam Maps of Vegas"
• Marianne Taylor, "Who Is the Hardware"
• Charles Yu, "My Last Days as Me"

 E. R. Catalano grew up in Astoria, Queens, where this story is set. "News from My Father" is loosely based on a family story about the author’s great-grandmother. She received an MFA from Emerson College in 1997. Her play, Sestina, has received several staged readings and a production at Heller Theatre in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She lives with her husband, also a writer, in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. This is her first published story.

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