About Burning Taffeta

This story won first place in a writing contest hosted by WMRA, a PBS affiliate in Virginia, and Streetlight Magazine, a literary journal in Charlottesville. Judging was provided by George Garrett, the Henry Hoyns Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Virginia.

George was well known for his generosity and enthusiasm in helping young writers, and I while at William & Mary I envied those students who were in the writing program at UVA. I had always wondered how things might have been different if I had gone there instead. So, it was particularly pleasing, and only a little ironic, that 20 years later George would select my story from a pile of 300.

The only rule was that all stories be short enough to read aloud in less than four minutes. First, second and third place winners were asked to read their stories on the air.

If you like, you can hear a recording of the story as broadcast with a click on the link below.