Categories for 2015 Literary Prize Submissions

Blue Moon

August 4, 2015 10:06 pm Published by

  What are you going to be when you grow up?  I think this was the most difficult question that... Read Story

Thankful

August 4, 2015 5:51 pm Published by

Many years ago I was born again, not in a religious sense but in a medical one. A stranger had... Read Story

All Points East

August 4, 2015 11:41 am Published by

Imagine you’re underwater. You’re suspended in total relaxation where the noise from the outside world can’t penetrate and air bubbles... Read Story

Where do you live?

August 3, 2015 5:09 pm Published by

I want to start out by saying that I am not preoccupied with death. I am preoccupied with my obituary.... Read Story

The Mustard Seed

August 3, 2015 4:32 pm Published by

Recently there was a reading in church from the New Testament about the tiny mustard seed outgrowing all other garden... Read Story

Rita’s Stable

August 2, 2015 9:17 pm Published by

“He is dying, Aphrodite; luxuriant Adonis is dying. What should we do? Beat your breasts, young maidens. And tear your... Read Story

LifeCycle

August 2, 2015 3:51 pm Published by

The sun goes in and out and I am relaxing for the first time this summer. It’s almost as if... Read Story

Corners

August 2, 2015 2:00 pm Published by

In August 1998 I saved my money as a supervisor in a women’s homeless shelter in New York City to... Read Story

Reincarnations

August 2, 2015 9:11 am Published by

In an earlier incarnation, during that opulently sensory, promise-laden, unchained time between college graduation and reality, I imagined for myself... Read Story

Spared

August 1, 2015 7:27 pm Published by

This is the story of two men, two fathers.   They didn’t grow up on the east end but they came... Read Story

On Shores

July 31, 2015 11:01 pm Published by

Perhaps this is your first time bringing a friend home from college, and it didn’t take much urging: Southampton Shores,... Read Story

Mapless in Suffolk

July 31, 2015 6:25 pm Published by

Let me take this opportunity to thank the many residents of the Hamptons and Riverhead who gave me directions last... Read Story

Rufus and Rastus

July 31, 2015 3:36 pm Published by

I’m not sure how old I was, but I was too young to attend school when my father bought two... Read Story

Going Home

July 30, 2015 12:00 pm Published by

I had looked forward eagerly to lunch with my friend Anne, who was visiting Long Island from North Carolina. We... Read Story

Happy As A Clam!

July 29, 2015 12:34 pm Published by

The adults living in the tightly knit New York City neighborhood in which I was raised had something in common... Read Story

Horse Love

July 28, 2015 1:30 pm Published by

On January 17, 1991 the world changed. Operation Desert Storm began and I involuntarily became a horse owner. That first... Read Story

Getting Gorgeous

July 27, 2015 9:14 am Published by

The Hamptons are among the nation’s most gorgeous locales. The women living and vacationing here are equal to the landscape.... Read Story

Farther East

July 26, 2015 12:37 am Published by

I’ll never fully understand the ambition that drove my father to build a beach house in the Hamptons. Dad was... Read Story

The Competition

July 25, 2015 9:39 pm Published by

  “I’m finished,” she shouts. “I have finished my essay and I am sending it off to Dan’s Papers.“ Once... Read Story

A Magical Place

July 25, 2015 8:35 pm Published by

My grandmother became sick the winter I was in first grade. I knew it was serious. The adults all huddled... Read Story

Mr. Davis

July 25, 2015 12:30 am Published by

Mr. Davis was growing into middle age… GOSH he was so successful. Big Money. Big Homes. Big Yacht. Big Helicopter.... Read Story

Forever Montauk

July 24, 2015 8:29 pm Published by

Yeah! It’s finally summer and BEACH DAY SUNDAY!  Hope Mom remembers my little pool, and my favorite towels.  We wait... Read Story

The Skinny

July 22, 2015 5:58 pm Published by

Ever since I can remember, I have enjoyed the harmless taboo of skinny dipping.  As a teen growing up in... Read Story

The Bee Mitzvah

July 22, 2015 1:58 pm Published by

  Another farm sold. The modest house and smattering of out buildings were now in the sights of a demolition... Read Story

A Father’s Gift

July 21, 2015 4:50 pm Published by

I am where I want to be because the East End is pockmarked with so many fresh water lakes and... Read Story

Life on the bay

July 21, 2015 3:18 pm Published by

In many not insignificant ways, I don’t live a very happy life, though I’m a happy person with an unwavering... Read Story

Scorched

July 21, 2015 12:08 pm Published by

  The Pine Barrens are green again. For many years, I passed that large patch of forestry west of Exit... Read Story

Blue

July 20, 2015 11:21 am Published by

There have been other waters. Once and again. But they were waters that promised more than could possibly be delivered,... Read Story

Cupid at the Privet Hedge

July 20, 2015 8:45 am Published by

“Where’s East Hampton?” I asked a friend. “Somewhere out on the Island, I think.  Why?” Having recently learned of East... Read Story

Between Two Roads

July 17, 2015 5:03 pm Published by

They rose like dark spires from the earth ––– the burial mounds of a forgotten civilization, tombs of forgotten kings... Read Story

Always Be The Water

July 14, 2015 8:35 am Published by

  Last weekend, while strolling along what I refer to as “the apron” – a beautiful stretch of beach in... Read Story

Quogue and Calamity

July 13, 2015 3:36 pm Published by

New York City’s notorious “French Connection” case became a book, then a movie, and, in later years spawned a more... Read Story

My Sandbar

July 13, 2015 11:47 am Published by

The sandbar was the same. Well probably not exactly as it appeared years ago, since tides change and years erode... Read Story

Saving Grace

July 9, 2015 5:41 pm Published by

A perfectly placid day at the beach; it is the reason I live not far from the pristine shores of... Read Story

Car ride memories.

July 9, 2015 9:26 am Published by

My earliest memories of the East End of Long Island come from day trips that I took with my family.... Read Story

Never Say Never

July 7, 2015 2:33 pm Published by

The renovations were finished, the house was perfect, and I was never moving again. Our expanded ranch had a three... Read Story

Childhood

July 6, 2015 2:10 pm Published by

Even after fifty years every time I go to Montauk I can still hear my mom’s voice. As my dad... Read Story

The Point

July 6, 2015 10:41 am Published by

  The boy raised the present over his head and brought it down hard against the stone counter, breaking it... Read Story

Back to the sea

July 5, 2015 9:08 pm Published by

There was a time when going to the Hamptons was something that city people did only in the summer. My... Read Story

The Album of ’76

July 5, 2015 6:58 pm Published by

“Scenes from the Boardy Barn and our first house in the Hamptons.  Also the Brooklyn guys and people we have... Read Story

Robins Island

July 1, 2015 2:56 pm Published by

Sometimes a circle is the only way to go. For Dickie, Allen, and myself, getting up at 5AM to waterski... Read Story

Facebook Redux

July 1, 2015 2:22 pm Published by

  Facebook (FB) has revolutionized inter-personal relationships, and its worldwide appeal is built on its inherent ability to communicate an... Read Story

Beautiful Messes

June 30, 2015 11:54 am Published by

Everything is beautiful but not everyone can see it. –Confucius Excuse the mess. We live here.        –Unknown   Making... Read Story

Tradition

June 30, 2015 6:52 am Published by

The East End is enchanting. It’s like a siren that lures you in with its special song of sea, sun... Read Story

Looking for Einstein

June 28, 2015 12:31 pm Published by

Many years ago, my husband Bob would tell visitors that Albert Einstein may have (or had, depending on the amount... Read Story

Helen’s House

June 27, 2015 6:46 pm Published by

Helen’s house was not like any Hamptons houses I’d heard about or imagined. It wasn’t on or even a close... Read Story

Dream Home

June 26, 2015 7:50 pm Published by

“I should say: the house shelters day-dreaming, the house protects the dreamer, the house allows one to dream in peace.”... Read Story

Alive with Words

June 25, 2015 12:56 pm Published by

I’ve been thinking about how poets become poets. My theory begins with Wordsworth’s lines about the child being father to... Read Story

Montauk

June 24, 2015 4:37 pm Published by

The pond was tiny, at the base of the steep slope that separated our yard from theirs’.  A spout on a... Read Story

My Hamptons

June 23, 2015 12:41 pm Published by

It was the summer of ’73, and the Hamptons still felt exotic, exciting and new. I was a twenty-three year... Read Story

Hamptons Snap Shot

June 19, 2015 7:37 pm Published by

I suppose some might view it differently, but I’ve always been drawn to color and there’s certainly a lot of... Read Story

Music, Mesclun, Maracas

June 19, 2015 12:43 pm Published by

What could mesclun greens possibly have to do with percussion instruments? In my town, there is a connection. I live... Read Story

Salty Dogs

June 17, 2015 12:54 pm Published by

Two years after my last great summer in Montauk, I got married. My new bride, Linda, a San Diego native,... Read Story

The Hard Crossing

June 17, 2015 9:01 am Published by

Eastern Long Island has a fragile, unique and beautiful ecology. The pressure on that balance of nature is probably most... Read Story

A Day at the Beach

June 15, 2015 2:15 pm Published by

“Son, it’s your lucky day. Ever been to Gin Lane?” “In Chinatown?” I replied, guessing wildly and badly. “I see.... Read Story