In The Antioch Review, Summer 2013, Volume 71, Number 3  issue Evan Morgan Williams has a story titled, “The Limousine.” It is a deftly told tale of a young man trying to come to terms with his own sexual desires. The setting is Las Vegas in the 1950s, a time when the family packed a picnic lunch and headed to the ridge above the desert to watch nuclear bomb test explosions. It was also a “…man’s time, and if you needed proof, there was the woman, the wife, the mom, more feminine than was proper for a man to behold.” It was a time when “the car defined the era, more than a woman in her dress, more than the bomb’s roiling mushroom cloud.”  Williams does a superb job of taking the reader into the period and into the life of a boy on the verge of adulthood, and we are proud and happy to have him as a contributor in The Antioch Review.

Evan Morgan Williams’ debut book of short stories, Thorn, has been named the 2013 winner of the BkMk Press, 2013 G.S. Sharat Chandra Prize and will be available sometime in 2014. “The Limousine” is one of the stories from the manuscript. Following is an interview in which we talked to Evan about the book, the story, and his writing process.

AR      Congratulations! Can you talk about the BkMk Press, 2013 G.S. Sharat Chandra Prize. What does it mean to you to have won?

EMW      I was very happy the book won. I had entered it in several other contests, and it had been a runner up in a couple of them, so I felt this win was more about the manuscript finding its home. BkMk (pronounced bookmark) is a good press. Their books have won honors, and they have a deep catalog, so I was happy my book won this particular contest. Continue reading →