Blackbird Establishes Short Fiction Prize Honoring Late Writer

By Tom Gresham

Blackbird: an online journal of literature and the arts announces the initiation of The Rebecca Mitchell Tarumoto Short Fiction Prize to be awarded annually.

A prize of $2,000 and publication in Blackbird will be awarded to the best work of short fiction submitted to the journal in a given year, with emphasis on work by an emerging writer. The prize is funded in memory of Rebecca Mitchell Tarumoto by David Tarumoto, her husband, to honor her devotion to the art of writing fiction, to expand the audience for outstanding short stories and to serve as encouragement to literary excellence among writers early in their careers. Blackbird is a joint venture of the Department of English at Virginia Commonwealth University and New Virginia Review Inc.

No application form or fee is required; all short fiction submitted to the journal is eligible. Submission guidelines are available on the journal website, http://www.blackbird.vcu.edu. Blackbird will select the inaugural prize-winning story from short fiction published in the journal in 2011 and will announce the winner in the fall 2011 issue. An award ceremony, featuring a reading by the prize-winner, will be held in March 2012 on the VCU campus. Winners also will be available for visits with area elementary school and high school students.

Rebecca Mitchell Tarumoto was born Sept. 21, 1945, in Richmond. She died in October 2007 after being struck in a pedestrian crosswalk in Carmel by the Sea, Calif. Her sustained interest in writing led to her fiction being published in a number of literary journals, and her work won several competitions, including the 1996 and 2000 short fiction contests sponsored by Richmond Magazine. She was a graduate of St. Gertrude’s High School in Richmond and of the Richmond Professional Institute, the precursor to VCU. She also received a master’s degree in English from the University of Michigan.

Funding for the Tarumoto Prize comes from an endowment established by David Tarumoto, but contributions in support of the inaugural celebration event and outreach activities related to the prize are welcomed. 

Contact:
Associate Editor, Blackbird
Department of English
Virginia Commonwealth University
PO Box 843082
Richmond, VA 23284-3082
blackbird@vcu.edu
804-827-4729

Additional contact:
Gregory Donovan, Senior Editor, Blackbird
gdonovan@vcu.edu