Department of English

H.E. Francis Literary Competition
Ruth Hindman Foundation/ Department of English
University of Alabama at Huntsville
Huntsville, Alabama 35899

Announcement of 2007 H.E. Francis Short Story Competition Winner and Finalists

We wish to congratulate Thomas McConnell for his short story "The Protectorate of Bohemia."

Thomas McConnell’s work has appeared in the Connecticut Review, the Cortland Review, Calabash, Yemassee, the Emrys Journal, the Charleston Post & Courier, and Writing Macao, among other publications, and won prizes in the Porter Fleming Awards for Fiction and Essay, the South Carolina Fiction Project, and the Hardagree Award for Fiction.

His collection of stories, A Picture Book of Hell and Other Landscapes, was published by Texas Tech University Press in 2005 and nominated for the PEN/Bingham Award and the John Gardner Award for Short Fiction.

Educated at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, and at the University of Georgia, he is associate professor of English at the University of South Carolina Upstate in Spartanburg, where he also directs the honors program.

A Fulbright Scholar in the Czech Republic for 2005-2006, he completed a novel while lecturing on American literature and creative writing at Masaryk University.

We also commend our semifinalists: Annie Holmes for "Coin," Timothy B. Rien for "Will-o'-the-Wisp," Patricia Brieschke for "Girl Day," and Lyle Thompson Roebuck for "The Crab." Their stories were truly outstanding.

Thanks to all of the authors who submitted stories. We received several hundred well crafted stories. Your talents make our work truly edifying. Please do us the honor of sending your work in the future.

Best wishes,
H.E. Francis Short Story Competition Board Members & Judges