New Fiction: 'The Second Hole' in Witness Magazine
New fiction released this month! First published short story by Michelle Thomas
I'm so pleased to announce that my first short story to find a place in the world has just been published. For all of you friends who have asked me - but is your work published somewhere? Where can I read it? NOW I have an answer for you. YES, you can! You can read a story by me any time you want to - it's published online at Witness Magazine.
What is Witness Magazine?
Witness is a literally magazine run by the Black Mountain Institute and UNLV, and they publish twice a year - one physical journal, and one online. If you have been looking for a new source of great reading material - look no further! Witness Magazine publishes Short Fiction, Creative Nonfiction and Poetry.
The lovely thing about the online magazines is that you can access them whenever you want. No need to worry that you may have missed your chance to read a story, or stress out about a copy of the magazine no longer being available in print. You can read online whenever the mood strikes.
Witness Magazine is also a supporter of BIPOC writers, and new writers. So it's a great place to find fresh voices. Like my story, "The Second Hole", that placed as a finalized in the Witness Literary Awards in 2022.
Witness Lit Awards 2022
Each year, Witness Magazine holds a literally awards contest for Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, and Poetry. You get the chance to have your work read by a SUPER cool judge. At least, that's what got me to submit. Last year's fiction judge was Mary South.
Why you should know Mary South
Mary south has written a heart rending short story that was published by The New Yorker, Called "You Will Never Be Forgotten". She absolutely knocked me over with emotional punch of this story, one that handles modern trauma, the internet, and wild beasts in one fantastic piece. So I was EXTRA excited by the idea that one of my pieces could land in front of her. I submitted, crossing my fingers that my story would jump the gauntlets of elimination and land on her laptop because OMG how cool?
Long story short: it happened :)
One of the short-listed stories given to Mary South was my story, "The Second Hole."
Surpassing my expectations, Witness Magazine wanted to publish me in their Fall/Winter 2022 issue. I am so, so grateful that my story came into the world at last, was shared with Mary South (yes, I'm a fan girl), and now you as well.
What is "The Second Hole" about?
Without giving you too much of spoiler review, "The Second Hole" is about a group of second grade girls at a private school in Detroit who decide that they want to form a club to learn more about sex. The protagonist, Madison, wants to be friends with the second grade bad girls - so she tells them a secret about their bodies, one she learned from her mom, in order to fit in. She wants to be friends so badly that she tells them this secret that she would rather not think about, a story about herself that she is so ashamed of that she cannot bear to tell her mother.
It begins like this:
Madison was a new student in the Detroit Waldorf school’s second grade, a class spoiled by three bad girls. Nikola! Emily! Beth! Teachers usually hollered their names. But the bad girls kept right on balancing on the log-fence that surrounded the playground, deaf as cats...
Ready to read? Click the button below to read it all on Witness Magazine's website.
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