3rd Place "After the Levantines" by Lauren Alwan

After the Levantines centers on Sofia, matriarch of the Almasis, whose history of dislocation and loss spans Istanbul as a new republic and immigration to pre-WW2 Brooklyn. When the family settles in 1950s Los Angeles, Sofia finds stability, until late in life when she’s faced with losing the home she loves.

"The words make no sense, like the English she heard during those first weeks in New York. She knows such a thing exists, has heard her mother speak of it, but can’t grasp the notion of death and birth in a single moment."

Bio: Lauren Alwan's fiction and essays have appeared in the O. Henry Prize Stories, The Southern Review, ZYZZYVA, Alaska Quarterly Review, Nimrod International, World Literature Today, Catapult, and others. Her work has been awarded the Bellevue Literary Review’s Goldenberg Prize for Fiction and cited as Notable in Best American Essays.