The Binnacle: Sixth Annual Ultra-Short Edition

by Gerard NeCastro (Editor)

The Binnacle’s Annual International Ultra-Short Competition features the best works of narrative fiction and poetry of 150 words or fewer. Submissions are typically received from six continents and a couple dozen countries. From these hundreds of submissions fifty to sixty works are chosen for the annual edition, and among these a few receive cash prizes. Submissions are accepted each year via e-mail at ummbinnacle@maine.edu between December 1 and March 15. Notifications are made in early June. The publication is completed several months later. For more information, please visit The University of Maine at Machias at http://binnacle.machias.edu/.

This volume contains works by Tania Hershman, Barbara Fleming Phillips, Nancy Brown Stump, Myra K. Merritt, Ellen La Fleche, Vanessa Gebbie, Vicky Grut, Veronica Keywood, Traci Grimaldi, Tom Sanchez Prunier, Tara Tabbutt, SuzAnne C. Cole, Susi Gregg Fowler, Stan Long, Shannon Schuren, Sandra Erickson, Samantha Priestley, Ruth Almon, Randall A. Martin, Peggy Douglas, Patty Olds, Patti McCarty, Pamela Johnson Parker, Oonah V Joslin, Nora Nadjarian, Nik Perring, Mercedes M. Yardley, Melvin Haris, Melindy Wynn-Bourne, Maureen Sherbondy, Mark Harding, Margaret Karmazin, Lynn Veach Sadler, Lyn Michaud, Linda Courtland, Kathleen Clauson, Kate LaDew, John Gosslee, Jennifer Moore, Erik Svehaug, Ellen Lindquist, Ellen Birkett Morris, Elizabeth Westmark, Douglas Bruton, Doug Mathewson, Didi Wood, Diane Smith, D.I. Telbat, Caroline Michalicki, Carol Carpenter, Beverly Akerman, Barbara McMakin, Anthony Evans, Anne Earney, Anne Brooke, and Andrea Kneeland.

73 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 1, 2017

About the author

Born and raised in Erie, Pennsylvania, Gerard NeCastro, after graduating from Mercyhurst college, was an accountant and bookstore manager in Cranberry, Pennsylvania, and Redlands, California. While working as a bookseller by day, he returned to school at night, studying languages part-time and eventually joined the master’s program in English at the University of California – Riverside, where he began his long involvement with Chaucer, Dante, and Medieval and Renaissance Drama. When he completed his MA, he continued his studies in Medieval Literature at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. While he was there, he taught in the legendary Integrated Liberal Studies program where he developed his love of Art History.

Upon completion of his Ph.D., he taught for two years at the University of Maine – Orono, and then for many years both on the graduate faculty at Orono and the regular faculty at Machias, where, after teaching hundreds of classes and editing dozens of publications, he was named as Emeritus Professor of English and Humanities. After his retirement there, he began his second career at WLU in July 2017. He and Vicki, his wife of 30+ years, live in the quiet town of Bethany. When he is not serving as dean or teaching his classes, he spends his time reading, editing, gardening, and writing fiction and poetry. He is now revising his novels Columbine AS3 and The In-Law.