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- - - - The Amanda Davis Highwire Fiction Award is a $5,000 grant given by McSweeney's and 826 Valencia, in memory of Amanda Davis. - - - - When Amanda was writing the stories that would become her first collection, Circling the Drain, she worked a number of ridiculous jobs to make ends meet. (At one point she was writing copy for television ads for newspaper tabloids.) Her second published story, "Fat Ladies Floated in the Sky Like Balloons," appeared in the second issue of McSweeney's and was everything we were looking for in fiction — it was bold, funny, experimental, lyrical, and ended without any conventional sort of resolution. She was at her best when she was at her most brave. Her first novel, Wonder When You'll Miss Me, concerned a teenage girl who leaves high school under cloudy circumstances and joins the circus. - - - - This memorial award is intended to aid a young woman writer of 32 years or younger who both embodies Amanda's personal strengths — warmth, generosity, a passion for community — and who needs some time to finish a book in progress. The book in progress needn't be thematically or stylistically close to Amanda's work, but we would be lying if we said we weren't looking to support another writer of Amanda's outrageous lyricism and heart. Cold-blooded minimalists (not to say all minimalists are that) might have a more difficult time. - - - - Requirements and Guidelines Applicants should send a work in progress, between 5,000 and 40,000 words, and a statement of their financial situation. You may list any and all ridiculous jobs performed to facilitate your writing, and you may include two other short pieces, published or otherwise, which will be read if you feel they would help in the understanding of your work generally. The reading group will consist of McSweeney's editors and a handful of writers and readers close to Amanda. - - - - The award will be given in one lump-sum grant, with no strings attached. Deadline is October 15, 2003. Winners will be notified November 30, 2003. Send materials in paper form (please don't send discs or url addresses) to: The Amanda Davis Highwire Fiction Award
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