The Diablo Valley College English Department is proud to present the winners of the first annual O’Keefe Prize* for Graphic Short Stories. We received many entries and our awards ceremony on Thursday, March 31st hosted Joe Field, the legendary Flying Colors Comics owner, winner of the Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Award, and featured speaker at this year’s Wondercon! The announcement of the winners and distribution of the prize money was gracefully tackled by President Garcia, and the event was well-attended by comics afficionados (students and faculty) and college community members who remembered James O’Keefe with fondness and laughter. [James, we miss you!] Without further ado, on to the winning entries!
The prize for the Best Overall story was split between two entries, “Panic” by Juliana Caccavo and “Prayer for Uganda” by Lizbeth Brown. Congratulations to both of you!
The award for Best Original story goes to “Cody & Baxter and the Infinite Universes, Part 7” by Alex White. Kudos to Alex!
“Origami Frogs” by Anita King captured the prize for the Best Short Form entry. Bravo, Anita!
We’re also very pleased to post slide shows of the entries that received Honorable Mentions: “The Demon of Evermore City” by Jacob Ginn, “Fast Food” by Kaitlyn Grimes, and “Gabriel the Angel” by Marie Dal Porto.
Our heartiest congratulations go out to all the winners! Tell everyone you know about the contest and gear up to enter again next year! Don’t look now, but the Fall semester is approaching quickly, and like last year, our entry deadline will be at the end of the semester.
*The O’Keefe Prize for Graphic Stories is offered in memory of our beloved English colleague James O’Keefe who dribbled soccer balls and raised hell among us for far too short a time. James created and then taught English 176, The Graphic Novel as Literature course. James died in December of 2008 after a thirteen month battle with brain cancer.
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