The Masters Review is an online and in print publication celebrating new and emerging writers. We are on the lookout for the best new talent with hopes of publishing stories from writers who will continue to produce great work. “Night Stencils” won first place at the 2021 Summer SSA Content.
The winner of the 2021 Summer Short Story Award for New Writers, selected by Kristen Arnett “Night Stencils”
“The careful weaving of this narrative—and the subsequent unraveling of it—took my breath away. I was deeply invested in the relationships between the characters in this beautiful story. Wife and husband, mother and child, the living and the dead. The author did an amazing job of tugging the threads of the past and present, twisting everything together seamlessly. This is a story of grief, which means it’s about how memories of loss continue to shape the characters; regret sits immediately alongside anger and denial, but there is also hope and love. How do we move forward when the past sits inside us, lodged like a fist in the throat? The story is bodied, messy, tender, and impressively written. It stayed with me long after I finished reading.”
Kristen Arnett, judge
“Cairo never sleeps, but it was deserted this night.” — “Night Stencils” by Sherine Elbanhawy
Read the rest on The Master’s Review.
