The editors of The Bark are very proud to announce that Bim Angst is the winner in our 1st Annual Short Story/Fiction Contest. Selected from hundreds of entrants, her work, Village Dogs, was the unanimous choice for both its literary merit and its insightful depiction of the human-dog bond. Village Dogs will be published in the April/May issue.

Bim Angst teaches writing at Penn State, Schuylkill, and lives in Saint Clair, Pa., with her three dogs, all of whom she adopted from the local shelter. Their spirits imbue her story, which is rich and dense in its understanding of the complex emotional dance that happens between a man, a woman and a dog.

Editor in chief Claudia Kawczynska was thrilled with the response to Bark's first writing competition, and sends her thanks to all the writers who submitted their work.
 
UPDATE: Three additional fiction entries by contest runners-up will be published in future issues of The Bark. These include an untitled story by Shawn Kobb of Dulles, Va.; Small Change by Katerina Lorenzatos Makris of Encinitas, Calif.; and Stepping-Off Place by Don Katnik of Hampden, Me. Congratulations!
We'll follow-up on the blog with more about the writers and their winning stories.