Announcing the Winners of the 2024 J.F. Powers Prize in Short Fiction
Dappled Things is pleased to announce the winners of our 2024 J. F. Powers Prize for Short Fiction. These stories were chosen by our editors from hundreds of submissions. We look forward to sharing them with you in upcoming issues of Dappled Things.
Thank you to everyone who submitted their best work—stories that “take us to a place of hope beyond the walls of this world by looking at and through this world, in all its ‘counter, original, spare, strange’ glory.” Your stories speak to the vitality of today’s Catholic fiction, and to its future promise.
Without further ado, the 2024 winners:
Winner: “Agua Caliente” by David Norling.
With its powerful opening, evocative writing, rich setting, and compelling plot, “Agua Caliente” delivers in every way. Its Biblical overtones artfully and even playfully underscore its exploration of family lineage, generational sin, and the mysterious workings of grace. A must-read.
Runner-Up: “One Waffle, Extra Whipped Cream” by Dustin M. Hoffman.
With deft strokes, this quiet vignette about ordinary people (a waitress and her patron) in an ordinary setting (Denny’s) with commonplace struggles (loneliness, grief) brings the reader face-to-face with human solitude and the futility of “coping.”
