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Come listen to a dramatic reading of the top three community-submitted short stories and find out who will receive our grand prize for best short story in 2025!
Registration is encouraged.
Interested in our Short Story Contest? Entries due Friday, November 7, 2025. Visit champaign.org/short-story for additional details.
About the judges:
Julie Navickas is a best-selling and award-winning, nationally recognized contemporary romance novelist, known for her keen ability to tell heart-wrenching, second-chance love stories through relatable characters with humility, humor, and heroism. She is also an award-winning University instructor in the School of Communication at Illinois State University. Julie earned master's degrees in bot organizational communication and English studies with an emphasis in book history, as well as a bachelor's degree in public relations, graduating cum laude from Illinois State University.
Julian Parrott grew up in Wales and first came to Champaign-Urbana on a study abroad experience where he met his future wife. After a brief stint as a small-town Illinois journalist, he returned to Champaign-Urbana and worked for the U of I for over 30 years. In that time, he was fortunate to teach a class about James Bond and his creator, Ian Fleming. He has published articles on Fleming and Bond and was inspired by the spy thriller genre to attempt to write his own novel. It was a canal trip back to Wales that actually provided the critical plot point that led to his completing his first novel. The novel, Fit for Purpose, was published in April 2021. His second novel, Of love and Honor, was published by Pegasus in January 2024.
Zach Simon earned his MFA in Poetry at the University of Illinois: Urbana-Champaign. He serves as an editorial assistant for Poetry Northwest and received the 2022 AWP Intro Journals Award for his poem “Homestead.” His recent work has appeared or is forthcoming in Blackbird, The Southern Review, Willow Springs, Poetry Northwest and elsewhere.
Our beautiful, state-of-the-art Main Library opened on January 6, 2008. You’ll find a wide variety of books, movies, and music, as well as free events for all ages. Looking for tech options? We offer free Wifi, dozens of public computers with internet access, and public meeting rooms.
