Good Stories Don鈥檛 Have to Be Long Ones: Six Word Story Competition Celebrates UMB Writers
Some stories need thousands of words. They are allowed to use six.
鈥� Simple, surprising, even shocking, sweet, sad, surreal. 鈥�
That is the challenge posed to UMass Boston students by the Creative Writing program, which makes a campus-wide call for six-word stories every fall. On Thursday, after receiving over 150 submissions for the 2021 contest, students and faculty came together on a beautiful afternoon at the Fox Point Pavilion to celebrate the campus鈥� writers and announce one that stood out from all the rest.
鈥淢edium Rare dates Medium, Well Done.鈥�
The story was submitted by communications major Jiejing Huang, and it earned the top spot in the contest.
The two second place finalists that were named also proved that powerful stories don鈥檛 need lots of words.
鈥淏ig mansion, beautiful family, one grave,鈥� wrote music major Brendan Harrington.
Brianna McCadden, an English major who took home the top spot in last year鈥檚 contest, wrote, 鈥淚n 天美传媒, she鈥檚 learning pepper spray,鈥� which earned her a second place finish this year.
It鈥檚 the eleventh year that the contest has taken place on Columbia Point, and the first time since being remote that participants have been able to meet in-person to celebrate. John Fulton, an associate professor of English and the director of the Creative Writing program, says it鈥檚 a welcome return to a celebration that brings together creatives from around the university, and proves that writing majors are not the only writers out there.
John Fulton speaks at the celebration on the Fox Point Pavillion.
鈥淚t was great to come together as a real campus community in the real world鈥攏o screens, no black boxes, no Zoom鈥攁nd hear the beauty, comedy, and dynamism in the words of our student writers,鈥� said Fulton. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 imagine a more important time to celebrate literature and to listen to our students and what they see and want to express about their world.鈥�
Though only 20 were chosen as finalists and three as winners, the pool of submissions was strong and covered a wide range of topics. Suchita Nayar, a graduate student in the Creative Writing Master of Fine Arts program and one of the contest鈥檚 judges, noted the quality of the work, and how difficult it was to pick only a handful from a strong pool.
鈥淪imple, surprising, even shocking, sweet, sad, surreal鈥he entries came in many shades, and it was fun to see them all,鈥� said Nayar. 鈥淲e singled out ones that had an unusual twist or had the seed of a much larger story. It was difficult to pick only twenty finalists.鈥�
鈥淚 love these tiny stories,鈥� Fulton said, summing up the contest. 鈥淲hat reader could imagine the richness of six words placed side-by-side? The answer: the reader of these amazing stories."