2025 Winner
Winter's End
by J.S. Puller

When Cassie finds herself in the house of someone she doesn’t know and has never met, she finds herself astounded by her hosts’ graciousness. But there are some things that don’t seem right. Like why does the wife agree with everything all the time? Why does the husband keep counting things? And why won’t the butler stop pushing the furniture around? An absurdist mythical retelling, Winter’s End is an exploration of identity, as perhaps most importantly, Cassie has to recall who she is and how she got there.