Blackbird Hosts Inaugural Tarumoto Prize Reading

By Tom Gresham

Kelly Cherry, the inaugural winner of the Rebecca Mitchell Tarumoto Short Fiction Prize from the Blackbird literary journal, will read her prize-winning work on March 28 at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Cherry will be joined by acclaimed author Ron Carlson. The readings will occur at the VCU Scott House, 909 W. Franklin St., at 8 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

Blackbird: an online journal of literature and the arts announced the initiation of the Tarumoto Prize last year. 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 or underappreciated 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.

“The Rebecca Mitchell Tarumoto Short Fiction Award not only will help the Blackbird journal to attract and bring attention to the work of highly talented and insufficiently recognized writers of exceptional short stories, but it also provides a welcome connection to the regional and university communities in which Rebecca lived and where she is fondly remembered,” said Gregory Donovan, professor of English at VCU and senior editor of Blackbird. “She was a student in Richmond both at St. Gertrude’s and at the institution that has become VCU, and later she was several times recognized by Richmond Magazine for the excellence of her own writing of short fiction.

“David Tarumoto contacted us about his desire to create a memorial to his wife which would also provide a supportive incentive to writers, especially those who were starting out in their writing lives or whose work deserved greater recognition, and he worked with us to develop this highly appropriate award—the encouragement provided by such a prize certainly can be a crucial event in the life of a writer. We hope this award will bring honor to the memory of Rebecca Mitchell Tarumoto, and we consider it an honor for our journal to host the award and it will be a great benefit for our creative writing program and our local community to be able to enjoy the reading given by the award winner.

“The award is definitely starting out auspiciously with such an outstanding writer as Kelly Cherry, and I believe that will make all the subsequent winners of the award feel even more positively about the support it brings to their writing and their careers.”

Cherry’s story, “On Familiar Terms,” was selected for this year’s prize. The story demanded the journal editors’ attention for innumerable reasons, including a subtle narrative voice, a masterful compression of time and an affectionate portrayal of character. The story can be read at http://www.blackbird.vcu.edu/v10n1/fiction/cherry_k/terms_page.shtml.

“I’m honored and delighted to receive the first Tarumoto Prize, and I hope my story does justice to the donor’s generosity and the judges’ decision,” Cherry said. “I’m also very pleased to be reading with Ron Carlson.

“My story, ‘On Familiar Terms,’ is a saga of several generations in under 20 pages. Thomas Mann said all novels are about time. I believe that is true. Can a short story be about time? That’s what I try to find out in ‘On Familiar Terms.’ Compressing time clarifies the effect one generation has on the next. Patterns repeat, while individuals go their own way. I find that fascinating.”

Cherry is the author of 20 books of fiction, poetry and nonfiction; eight chapbooks; and translations of two classical plays. She is the current Poet Laureate of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Other honors include the Hanes Prize for Poetry from the Fellowship of Southern Writers, fellowships from the NEA and the Rockefeller Foundation and a USIS Speaker Award to the Philippines.

Carlson’s most recent book is the novel “The Signal” from Viking. His short stories have appeared in Esquire, Harpers, the New Yorker and other journals, as well as “The Best American Short Stories,” “The O. Henry Prize” series, “The Pushcart Prize Anthology,” “The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction” and other anthologies. “Ron Carlson Writes a Book,” his story on writing, is taught widely. He is the director of the Graduate Program in Fiction at the University of California, Irvine.

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 outreach activities related to the prize are welcomed. Contributions can be made at http://givenow.vcu.edu/RMTarumoto or by contacting Blackbird.

No application form or fee is required for consideration for the prize; all short fiction submitted to the journal is eligible. Submission guidelines are available on the journal website, http://www.blackbird.vcu.edu.