Gival Press is pleased to announce that John Tait of Flower Mound, Texas has won the 21st Annual Gival Press Short Story Award-2024 for his short story titled Visiting Writer, chosen anonymously by the judge Joan Goldsmith Gurfield. The award includes a $1,000.00 cash prize and the story will be published on Gival Press’s website and in ArLiJo in January 2025.
Advance Praise
"Visiting Writer by John Tait, commands one’s attention. With warm-hearted accuracy, Tait’s sharp, realistic dialogue, deft, understated descriptions, and profound understanding of all his characters’ motivations and desires plunge the reader into the sometimes comedic and sometimes pathetic poses, intrigues, and jealousies inherent in a modern writing program. But the situations he describes could be those among any small, insular group. We cringe at the same time as we laugh uneasily, recognizing ourselves or people we have known and empathizing with his well-meaning, self-effacing protagonist.”
—Joan Goldsmith Gurfield, judge
About the Author
John Tait is a Canadian-American writer whose stories have appeared in Narrative, Crazyhorse, Prairie Schooner, Southwest Review, and The Sun and have won prizes such as the Tobias Wolff Award, the Rick Demarinis Fiction Award, and the H.E. Francis Award for Fiction. He is an Associate Professor of Fiction at the University of North Texas.
Photo by Nan Jiang.
Finalists
Flower Girl
by Ellen Goff of New York, NY
A Red Thread
by Karlin Wayne of Lexington, Park, MD
