mnLIT--What Light Poetry Project and miniStories flash fiction series
mnLIT is a literary program in poetry and fiction presented by mnartists.org, in collaboration with Magers and Quinn Booksellers, sponsored by The Twin Cities Decider/The Onion.

Leif Enger (PEACE LIKE A RIVER and SO BRAVE, YOUNG, AND HANDSOME)
Photo by Robin Enger

PEACE LIKE A RIVER by Leif Enger
Jacket art courtesy of the publisher, Grove/Atlantic

SO BRAVE, YOUNG, AND HANDSOME by Leif Enger
Jacket art courtesy of the publisher, Grove/Atlantic

Lise Erdrich (NIGHT TRAIN)
Photo courtesy of the author

NIGHT TRAIN by Lise Erdrich
Jacket art courtesy of the publisher, Coffee House Press

Jon Fasman (THE GEOGRAPHER'S LIBRARY and THE UNPOSSESSED CITY)
Photo courtesy of the author

THE GEOGRAPHER'S LIBRARY by Jon Fasman
Jacket art courtesy of Penguin Press

THE UNPOSSESSED CITY by Jon Fasman
Jacket art courtesy of Penguin Press

Diana Joseph (I'M SORRY YOU FEEL THAT WAY)
Photo courtesy of the author

I'M SORRY YOU FEEL THAT WAY by Diana Joseph
Jacket art courtesy of Penguin Putnam

miniStories lead juror, Geoff Herbach (THE MIRACLE LETTERS OF T. RIMBERG)
Photo by Sam Osterhout, courtesy of the author

THE MIRACLE LETTERS OF T. RIMBERG by Geoff Herbach
Jacket art courtesy of Three Rivers Press

THE SUICIDE COLLECTORS by David Oppegaard
Jacket art courtesy of St. Martin's Press

David Oppegaard (THE SUICIDE COLLECTORS)
Photo courtesy of the author

Our judges for the 2009 cycle of miniStories -- Leif Enger, Lise Erdrich, Jon Fasman, Diana Joseph, and David Oppegaard -- selected 18 winning short-short stories to be posted, one story every other week through April 2010, online at mnartists.org and magersandquinn.com. This year's winning writers were selected from a pool of several hundred submissions by Minnesota writers to mnartists.org's 2009 mnLIT/miniStories competition.

The full list of 2009 mnLIT winners, in both poetry (What Light) and flash fiction (miniStories) is available here.

Our 2009 miniStories jurors:

Leif Enger was raised in Osakis, Minnesota, and worked as a reporter and producer for Minnesota Public Radio for nearly twenty years. He lives on a farm in Minnesota with his wife and two sons. He is the author of two nationally bestselling novels, Peace Like a River and So Brave, Young, and Handsome, both published by Grove/Atlantic.

Lise Erdrich was born in Minnesota, lives in Wahpeton, North Dakota, and has worked in Indian health and education for over twenty years. A graduate of the University of North Dakota and of Minnesota State University-Mankato, she is the author of the children's picture books Sacagawea and Bears Make Rock Soup. Stories from Night Train, her first collection for adults, have received many awards including the Minnesota Monthly Tamarack Award, the Many Mountains Moving Flash Fiction Contest, and Best of Show at the North Dakota State Fair, where the story "Zanimoo" was exhibited between a pig and the pickles, jams, jellies and preserves. Erdrich's essays and stories have also appeared in several journals and anthologies including Sister Nations: Native American Women Writers on Community, and Visit Teepee Town: Native Writings After the Detours.

Jon Fasman was born in Chicago in 1975 and grew up in Washington, D.C. He was educated at Brown and Oxford universities and has worked as a journalist in Washington, D.C., New York, Oxford, and Moscow. His writing has appeared in The Times Literary Supplement, Slate, Legal Affairs, the Moscow Times, and The Washington Post. He is now a writer and an editor for The Economist's web site. He is also the author of two novels, the NYT bestselling The Geographer's Library and, this year, The Unpossessed City, both published by Penguin Press.

Diana Joseph is the author of Happy or Otherwise, a short story collection, and I'm Sorry You Feel that Way, a memoir.  She teaches creative writing in the MFA program at Minnesota State University, Mankato. You can read more about and by Diana online by visiting her website, her blog, and her teaching blog.

David Oppegaard is a novelist living in St. Paul, MN. His post-apocalyptic debut novel The Suicide Collectors was a finalist for a Bram Stoker award this year, and his second novel Wormwood, Nevada will be released this December by St. Martin's Press.

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In addition to these fine folks, novelist Geoff Herbach (The Miracle Letters of T. Rimberg, Three Rivers Press) returned for a second year to serve as our jury foreman for the 2009 cycle of miniStories. Not only did he coordinate the ins and outs of the adjudication process, Geoff also pored through the winning pool of 18 fiction writers to select our three grand prize-winners for this round of miniStories.

mnartists.org is a joint project of the Walker Art Center and the McKnight Foundation

Membership on mnartists.org is FREE. Find step-by-step instructions for how to join and how to use the free resources available on the site. If you need assistance, contact Will Lager at info@mnartists.org. Any Minnesota resident is eligible to participate in mnartists.org's mnLIT competitions for poetry and fiction; there are no entry fees, and all levels of skill and experience are welcome to enter work for consideration by a revolving panel of established authors and publishing professionals in mnLIT's blind adjudication process.