Matthew Ulmer, Langhorne resident, is the Winner of the 4th Annual Bucks County Short Fiction Contest.

Matthew Ulmer of Langhorne has won first place in the fourth annual Bucks County Short-Fiction contest, officials at Bucks County Community College announced.

Ulmer, who wins a $200 honorarium for placing first, entered his story “Poached.” He’ll read portions of his winning story at an online reception at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 18. The reading can be viewed live on the college’s YouTube channel at youtube.com/BucksCCC.  

Second-place winner Joseph O’Kane of Richboro will also read at the celebration. O'Kane won $100 for his story, “All the Way Home.” Joining in will be Barbara Beck of Quakertown, who captured third place and $50 for “A Little Ghost Story.”

The final judge, Philadelphia-area novelist Kiley Reid, will also speak at the reception. Reid wrote the well-received novel Such a Fun Age. It takes place in Philadelphia.

Reid called Ulmer’s “Poached” “…an exciting and twisting story of a regretful son, his late attempts to do the right thing, and the all too familiar understanding that sometimes, it's far too late. It's nicely paced, its main character is full and flawed, and it does what every short story should do, in that it made me, quite curious and with more questions than I started with.”

The judge lauded O’Kane’s “All the Way Home” by remarking that “The voice and point of view in All The Way Home make themselves known from the very first sentence, and not once do they let up. This is one of those stories that reads as if it's being directly overheard. The prose was refreshingly human and natural in its language, word choice, and most importantly, in its depiction of adolescent angst.”

Reid wrote of Beck’s “A Little Ghost Story,” “There is the growing tension and that exciting eerie glitch that comes when readers and characters alike come to know that something isn't quite right. And there is an omniscient and knowing third person narrator that carefully drops in and out of their own strong take on this cautionary take. A Little Ghost Story was a delightful fable that should be preferably read by fire or flashlight.”

The annual Bucks County Short-Fiction Contest is open to adults who are residents of Bucks County. For more details about the submission and judging, click HERE. Bucks County high school students can look forward to a similar contest sponsored by the college in the spring.

Bucks County Community College funds the contest, which receives support from the Department of Language and Literature. For more information, contact Professor Elizabeth Luciano, the contest administrator, at Elizabeth.Luciano@bucks.edu.

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