I was honored to be asked to be this year’s Judge for the Willow Springs Press 2024 Spokane Prize for Short Fiction. After reading all the entries with great diligence, I selected Nightwatch by Mathew Goldberg, and in concert with the Willow Springs team, I’m happy to announce that Arkansas-based MFA teacher and writer Mathew Goldberg as the winner of the 2024 Spokane Prize for Short Fiction. He is an exquisite writer, and I’m so happy to have encountered his work.
“Mathew Goldberg’s new book has the vivid, precise language we expect of a poet, but the author also knows how to create complex and compelling narratives. Add to this mix Goldberg’s memorable dialogue and the result is that rare alchemy that only the best short story writers achieve. Night Watch is a marvelous collection, one of the best I’ve read in a long while.”
– Ron Rash, author of the 2009 PEN/Faulkner finalist and New York Times bestseller Serena
