The SEA Short Story Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Short Stories, Collections and Novellas. The Grand Prize Winners, Robin Elizabeth Kobayashi’s book, Something About Lizzy and Dr. Yumiko Shimabukuro’s story Dream Rut: Navigating Your Path Forward will be promoted for years to come in our annual Hall of Fame article, as well as be featured on the Shorts contest page year ’round!
The best part about being a Chanticleer Int’l Book Award Winner is the love and attention you get all year ‘round!
The 2024 Shorts Winners were announced at the 2025 Chanticleer Authors Conference in April, and you can see the official winners post here for Novellas and Collections! And here for Short Stories and Essays!
See our newest Award Division for Collections and Anthologies here!
Join us in celebrating the 2024 First Place SEA Shorts Winners!
Barry Robbins – Voices of the Civil War
Voices of the Civil War offers a revolutionary approach to experiencing America’s defining conflict. This groundbreaking work brings the Civil War to life through meticulously crafted first-person narratives, imagining the thoughts and words of those who lived through this tumultuous era.
From the highest halls of power to the bloodiest battlefields, readers witness the war unfold through the eyes of presidents and generals, soldiers and civilians. Each chapter presents a unique voice, offering intimate perspectives on key moments and decisions that shaped the course of history. Feel the agonizing weight of command, the terror of battle, the hope of emancipation, and the anguish of a nation torn apart. Voices of the Civil War goes beyond mere facts and dates, plunging readers into the raw emotions and moral complexities of America’s bloodiest conflict.
This isn’t just a retelling of history-it’s an immersive journey into a nation at war with itself. Prepare to experience the Civil War in a whole new way, through voices that bring the past vividly to life.
Paper Lantern Writers – Beneath a Midwinter Moon
What mystery, romance, and adventure lie Beneath the Midwinter Moon?
It may be cold outside, but inside this anthology, the Paper Lantern Writers bring you warm and engaging reflections of holiday celebrations across seven centuries. From the United States to India and Europe, eleven stories of courage, fortitude and love are illuminated by the midwinter moon.
Boiling Point: A young mother weighs her future with her pro-colonial husband and their children in 1930s India. Will her children’s bravery and their love help her reach the right decision?
Star Lantern: A downcast woman in 17th century Amsterdam gets a surprise at the Twelfth Night celebrations. Will she regain her faith in her family?
Hand-in-Hand Pies: A young girl learns a new skill and meets a lifelong friend when she visits the 1789 Frost Fair in London. Will her life take an unexpected turn?
Long Winter: Can two educated young misses find their purpose—and the romance of a lifetime—across the backdrop of the Western Expansion?
X Marks the Spot: In 1918 New York, a vaudeville knife thrower’s wife knows she must take the ultimate risk to protect her own life and that of her unborn baby. Has she got the nerve to see it through?
A Wicked Turn at Christmas: The return of an old enemy threatens to tear an Elizabethan family apart. Can the wife stop this attack before it’s too late?
Frontier Christmas: The rules of courtship are changing in the 1830s US West. An 18 year-old girl sets her sights on her ideal man, but a rival wants to steal him away. Can she reset the rules in her favour?
Dear Santa: An aspiring businesswoman gets a job in Santa’s Photo Shop in 1969 California. When Santa goes off sick, she has no-one to play the part. Can she really stand in as the great man herself?
The Greatest Love: Belgium 1944 – A mixed-race nurse meets an American soldier in WW2 Belgium and they develop feelings for each other. Can they ever find happiness together? Based on a true story.
Phillipe’s Epiphany: A young husband has doubts about his new wife’s fidelity in 15th century London. Will he let it destroy his marriage before it’s even begun, or will true love shine through?
Stitchwork: Christmas celebrations in 1860s Switzerland involve a parade of mythical characters. A woman is wronged by a powerful man. When she disguises herself as a dark counterpart to St. Nicholas, will she get justice?
Find it on Amazon!
Cynthia Geouge Davis – Catfish Corner
Welcome to the hilarious world of Catfish Corner where church secretaries spike their bottles of Diet Coke and fine Southern ladies gossip at the beauty shop and finger their pearls.
This light-hearted look at Southern living uses funerals, baptisms, romance and marriages to create a place where humor kisses sarcasm and likes it so much that it does it again and again.
So, head south, y’all and find out why Lily Mae had that funny hump on her back and learn how Althea finally got rid of Floyd.
And for goodness sake, steer clear of Reverend Handy’s tent revival. You’ll lose your beer and maybe your religion if you get too close to that particular Big Top!
Just sayin’.
Deborah L. Staunton – Untethered
Untethered tells the story of growing up with a mentally ill, alcoholic father and the experience of raising a mentally ill daughter. It follows the author’s journey through multiple miscarriages and the “untethering” of minds, relationships, and pregnancies. Untethered is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit through the author’s unravelling world.
Irena Smith – The Golden Ticket: A Life in College Admissions Essays
What do we, as parents, really mean when we say we want the best for our children?
Irena Smith tackles this question from a unique vantage point: as a former Stanford admissions officer, a private Palo Alto college counselor, and a mother of three children who struggle to find their place in the long shadow of Stanford University.
Written as a series of responses to actual college essay prompts, this witty, raw memoir takes the reader from the smoke-filled lobby of the Hebrew Aid Society in Rome, where Irena and her parents await asylum with other Soviet refugees in 1977, to the overpriced house she and her husband buy in Palo Alto in 1999, to the hushed inner sanctum of the Stanford admissions office. Irena grows a successful college counseling practice but struggles to reconcile the lofty aspirations of tightly wound, competitive high school seniors (and their anxious parents) with her own attempts to keep her family from unraveling as, one by one, her children are diagnosed with autism, learning differences, depression, and anxiety. And although she doesn’t initially understand her children—or how to help them—she will not stop stumbling and learning until she figures it out.
The Golden Ticket opens a much-needed conversation about extreme parenting, the weight of generational expectations, and what happens when Gen-X dreams meet unexpected realities. It’s a sharp-eyed depiction of hard-won triumphs and of the messy, challenging parts of parenting you won’t see on Facebook or Instagram. Above all, it’s an invitation to embrace a broader, more generous definition of success.
Gail Noble-Sanderson – The Soldier Jacob
This work is a manuscript. Gail also won First Place Ribbons this year in Chatelaine and Mystery & Mayhem for her book A Cup of Revenge, and a Cover Design Fiction First Place for The Book of Rules.
Gail and husband Terry love to travel the world including two trips to France during the research and writing of her first three books, The Lavender House in Meuse, The Passage Home to Meuse, and The Lavender Bees of Meuse. A trip to Wales is certainly on their agenda as she completes her first novel in the new cozy mystery series, The Book of Rules. The book’s protagonist, a young woman named Drew Davies, lives in the village of Mumbles, Wales, and works in the railway depot in Swansea, Wales. She, along with her Granda, her Nonna and a colorful cast of friends, become involved in Drew’s sleuthing as she attempts to solve the mysteries in this new series of novels.
Burl Harmon – Being 100 Years Old
This work is a Manuscript. Burl has previously won a Military and Front Line First Place Ribbon for his book Combat Missions, a memoir about his time as a pilot during WWII. You can see our review of Combat Missions here:
Sometimes, a close and personal story can reveal the true weight of major historical events. Combat Missions, a memoir from WWII veteran Burl D. Harmon, achieves this by detailing how Europe’s vicious aerial battles shape a young boy’s entry to manhood.
On December 7, 1941, Harmon is summoned to his high school’s auditorium to hear President Roosevelt proclaim it as, “a day which will live in infamy…” Soon after, his draft notice arrives. Harmon’s junior college studies and work at the local Rexall drug store are put on hold as he joins the vast flood of young American men and women conscripted into military service. Leaving his small Iowa town and a family mostly sheltered from the grim realities of the outside world, he travels to New York City with people from every imaginable background.
With no prior mechanical experience, he works diligently to become a flight engineer, training to master a lexicon of manual tasks and learn the intricacies of air-to-air combat amidst bombing runs. His training takes him even farther from home, to Detroit, Lorado, Texas, Puerto Rico, and even Cuba.
KD Sherrinford – Christmas at the Saporis
What will the Saporis find under the tree this year—Christmas presents, or family skeletons?
In the spirit of the holiday and a wish for familial harmony, Irene Adler persuades her detective husband to invite his brother Mycroft to Christmas luncheon. Holmes had cut ties with his brother when he discovered the machinations Mycroft employed that drove Sherlock and Adler apart for four years. He isn’t really sure this reunion is a great idea, but he can deny his wife nothing.
Of course, they can’t tell the children what Mycroft is to them, as that would entail learning that their father is the celebrated detective when they know him simply as Lucca Sapori. And just when they think things may be going better than expected, ghosts of the past crop up in unexpected ways and threaten to ruin the holidays for everyone.
Mike Murphey – Claunch Ness Monster
This work is a Manuscript. Mike has previously won the 2022 Shorts Grand Prize for his work, Old Man Baseball. This year he also won a First Place Ribbon for his series, Tales of Physics, Lust and Greed. You can see an interview we did with Mike Murphey here!
Find his books on Amazon!
Lisa G. Spicer – Letters From Tacoma
This work is a Manuscript.
Lisa Spicer has worked in television, film, and video production for over 30 years as producer, writer, and editor. Starting in the documentary unit at KCTS/PBS Seattle, she worked there later on the Bill Nye the
Science Guy show, earning 3 Emmys. As an independent documentary producer, she has worked in Kenya, Mexico’s Lacandon rainforest, Northern Cheyenne and Lummi Indian reservations, Boulder, Seattle, and Bellingham.Lisa has a BA in Broadcast Journalism and certificates in Filmmaking and Screenwriting (UW). Mid-career she earned an MA in Anthropology (WWU). Integrating anthropology into documentary, she
co-produced Homeless in Bellingham, an award-winning web series and documentary, and served as Consulting Anthropologist for the feature documentary, Cheech and Chong’s Last Movie.Recently finishing an historical novel, Radio Smokva, she’s now writing about her back-to-the-land childhood and publishing a weekly series on Substack, Collective Effervescence: Research About the Counterculture.
Glen Dahlgren – The Dice of Chaos
Glen also won a First Place in Series for The Chronicles of Chaos, the series this story ties into, and book 3, Realm of Gods, won a First Place in Ozma and is the 2024 Dante Rossetti Grand Prize Winner.
When destiny calls, will you answer—or roll the dice?
After resisting for years, a young mother finally succumbs to the Longing. The pull drags her away from her family, but chance lands her in a mysterious swamp. There, an ancient tree offers magic that could change her fate in ways she never dreamed—or desired.
This standalone story is the perfect entry point into the award-winning YA fantasy series, but for longtime fans it provides the backstory behind Lorre’s incredible and dangerous dice, this bite-sized adventure reveals all!
Readers new and old, prepare to unveil the secrets of the dice and witness the spark that ignites a legendary saga, where mortals and gods clash in an epic battle over a world unlike any other.
Find it through his newsletter or on Amazon!
PJ Devlin – Running
This work is a Manuscript.
PJ has previously won a First Place in Ozma for her book The Chamber, a First Place in Goethe for Wissahickon Souls, a First Place in Dante Rossetti for Becoming Jonika, and a First Place in Somerset for Wishes, Sins, and the Wissahickon Creek. You can see our review for Wishes, Sins and the Wissahickon Creek here:
Wishes, Sins, and the Wissahickon Creek by PJ Devlin emulates the lives of fictional characters brimming with hope and promise yet living a truthful life of existence in the gorgeous setting of Pennsylvania’s Wissahickon Creek.
The book encompasses ten short stories making it a complete work of fiction. Devlin creates characters which are rich in both experience and struggle. Not only do they live in a real world created by Devlin, but her characters, a mix of children and adults, both struggle with daily, real-world issues most Americans deal with. The stories are all relatable in this sense, which makes the text come alive, page after page.
Find it on Amazon!
Catherine Brown – Finding Namaste
This work is a Manuscript. Catherine has previously won the 2023 Shorts Grand Prize Winner for The Heart of Kublai Khan’s Menagerie Keeper and also won a First Place in Dante Rossetti this year for her book The Appearance of Power.
Thank you for joining us to celebrate the 2024 Shorts First Place Winners!
Your book can join the Tiers of Achievement, but only if you submit to the Shorts Awards!
Got a great Short Book? The 2025 Shorts Awards are open through the end of July!
The SEA Shorts Awards recognize emerging talent and outstanding works in Collected Works such as Short Story Collections, Essay Collections, and Anthologies. The SEA Shorts Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards program.
