Announcing the Winners of the
29th Annual Palo Alto Weekly 2015

Each individual has his or her own quirks, a collection of experiences, a way of seeing the world. What happens when that person's inner life collides with that of another? Will they remain inflexible, resulting in broken lives and hearts? Or will they learn from one another until they both change, embracing a greater diversity of ideas and perspectives?

Among other motifs and issues, relationships emerge as central to the three winning stories of the Adult, Young Adult and Teen categories of this year's Palo Alto Weekly Short Story Contest.

Characters of all stripes grapple with their own and others' stubbornness while contemplating the opportunities of the future and the mistakes of the past. The personalities and situations in these stories ask readers to consider how they relate to and treat those closest to them.

The Palo Alto Weekly would like to thank the 115 writers who submitted work to this year's contest; the readers Danielle Truppi and Sharon Levin, who selected the top entries in each category for the judges to consider; the Adult and Young Adult category judges, Tom Parker and Meg Waite Clayton; and the judges for the Teen category, Katy Obringer, Nancy Etchemendy and Caryn Huberman Yacowitz. The Weekly also like to thank the contest co-sponsors, Bell's Books of Palo Alto, Kepler's Books of Menlo Park and Linden Tree Books of Los Altos.