Commonweal, the acclaimed independent journal of religion, politics, and culture, has announced the winner of its inaugural prize in fiction. The prize, conceived in celebration of Commonweal’s upcoming centennial, recognizes original and outstanding short fiction by emerging writers, and the winning story is published in the magazine’s July/August issue. The winner of this year’s prize is Kaylie Borden O’Brien. 

O’Brien, an educator who works with at-risk students in rural Maine, is a subscriber and regular reader of Commonweal. She saw an ad in the magazine promoting the short fiction contest and, inspired, sat down to write her prize-winning story. O’Brien discussed her story and her writing process in an interview with Commonweal, which you can listen to here. 

Over the past 100 years, Commonweal has published some of the best writers of fiction, including Graham Greene, Andre Dubus, Alice McDermott, Mary Gordon, Jennifer Haigh, and Rand Richards Cooper. The inaugural prize in fiction seeks to honor this history while grounding Commonweal’s commitment to fiction firmly in the present day.

The inaugural prize was assessed through a multi-part process. More than seventy-five submissions were read by Commonweal’s associate editor Regina Munch and special projects editor Miles Doyle, in collaboration with Commonweal’s editor Dominic Preziosi. The winner was selected by the National Book Award-winning writer and Commonweal board member Alice McDermott. 

McDermott calls O’Brien’s short story “a marvelously constructed tale, Escher-like in its emotional complexity as well as its disorienting realism.” She continues, “what a pleasure to discover a writer who so relishes detail and voice, who can wield irony not to mock or condemn a character, but to pierce the reader’s heart.” McDermott’s full remarks, along with the text of “Just Passing Through,” can be found here.