The Late Great Cai Emmons Left You Fiction Writers a Prize!

I'm honored to judge the inaugural Cai Emmons Fiction Award

Writers tend to be introverts, but we love community. I know. We’re walking contradictions. So be it. I cherish my writer friends, so I was devastated to lose the extraordinarily gifted, funny, and generous Cai Emmons to ALS this year.

We became friends when both of us were starting to write fiction back in the 1980s. We chatted about that for Writers Digest and for Ms and for the LA Review of Books. We formed a longstanding writing group and both went on to publish a variety of novels and stories, which we did our damnedest to help each other promote. We got our MFAs and taught in MFA programs and, though we lived in different states by then, we rejoiced every time we met at writing conferences. But neither of us could have predicted when we met in our 30s that our voices would be united on Cai’s final blog post last December, just days before she died.

Cai adored literature and writing and writers, too. She loved nurturing new literary talent. And that’s why she endowed the Cai Emmons Fiction Award at Red Hen Press. I am beyond honored to be the judge for the inaugural prize, which will be awarded next year.

I’d love for you to win Cai’s prize!