While we were anxiously awaiting to read your stories for the 2016 Fiction Prize, we interviewed one of the finalists of last year’s 2015 Fiction Prize, Jennifer Popa, on her short story, “The Lost Boys of the Shirley Marie.” If you’re looking for some inspiration or some writing tips to get you out of a rut, continue reading below.
Jennifer Popa recently relocated from the interior of Alaska, where she did her MFA in Creative Writing, to the South Plains of West Texas where she is now a PhD student of English and Creative Writing at Texas Tech University. In addition, she’s made homes for herself in Seattle, Washington; Hiroshima, Japan; and all over the state of Michigan. She’s currently working on a collection of short stories, some of which can be found at The Citron Review, Green Briar Review, Grist, and Fiction Southeast.