The Binnacle: Eleventh Annual Ultra-Short Edition

by Gerard NeCastro (Editor), Alysson B. Parker, Kathleen Clauson

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' site.

This volume contains works by Alysson B. Parker, Kathleen Clauson, Lynn Bey, Diane Smith, Cheyenne Robinson, Katherine Adlam, DeVonna R. Allison, Bill Bibo Jr, Evan Guilford-Blake, Gabriella Brand, Sarah Carleton, Lisa Ricard Claro, Charlie Coleman, Ros Collins, SuzAnne C. Cole, Jeffrey Cooper, Dianne Dancy, William Davoll, K. S. Dearsley, Christina Woś Donnelly, Jann Everard, Sophie Fern, Andy Fogle, Jennifer Freed, Joyce Frohn, Irene Gu, William Locke Hauser, Debbie Okun Hill, Elizabeth Hopkinson, HC Hsu, Shazla G. Hussain, Jules Jacob, Jennifer Ruth Jackson, Linda Kennedy, Rebecca Kleinberg, James A. Knoop, Meg Eden Kuyatt, Alexis Hope Lerner, Clyde Liffey, Clare Marsh, Day Merrill, Caroline Michalicki, Ellen Birkett Morris, Rebecca Muchow, Michael M. Pacheco, Jonathan Pinnock, Edward Schultz, Shannon Schuren, Miranda Stone, JC Sullivan, Anne Thompson, Jari Thymian, Caroline Todd, Paul Weidknecht, and Gary Winters.

77 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.