Hi, I'm Lovar Burton and this is Lovar Burton Reads.

In every episode I handpick a different piece of short fiction and read it to you.

The only thing these stories have in common is that I love them and I hope you will too.

This is a very exciting day for me because today I get to read the winning entry of the Lovar

Burton Reads writing contest.

Last year I was approached by FILE Literary Magazine and Tor.com about collaborating on

a writing contest.

Now I was really excited because we have sourced many of the great stories for the pod

from both of these venues.

The Silver Door Diner, Kiss with Teeth, the list goes on.

So, we teamed up and put out a call for submissions last summer.

And boy, did y'all answer the call?

I wish I had been able to recognize even more stories than we did because there were

so many wonderful stories.

And if you submitted and your story wasn't chosen, I

really want to thank you for sharing it with us.

Your work ranged from hard sci-fi to light speculative fiction, featuring creatures and

humans.

The work tackled the nuances of blending and competing cultures and civilizations.

Y'all, it was truly, truly beautiful.

And I want to thank our slush team for reading over 700.

Yeah, y'all, you heard that right.

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