Just got a press release that ended the day on a happy note:

Artist Trust is excited to announce that the recipient of the inaugural Gar LaSalle Storyteller Award in 2015 is writer Anca Szilágyi. The Gar LaSalle Storyteller Award is an unrestricted award of $10,000 given to a Washington State artist who is engaged in storytelling through their work in various artistic disciplines. The 2015 award recognizes an outstanding literary artist working in fiction.

It's been a good year for Szilágyi; she's headlined readings all over town, she's seen a lot of work published, her story "Cauliflower Tells You" was nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and now this. If you're unfamiliar with her work, try "Cumulus", an audio version of her story "Bastille Day", and "Skitter," which has the terrific opening line: "Another tooth plinked into the tea glass and Harush blinked at it twice."

Congratulations to Szilágyi, and a heartfelt thank you to Artist Trust for giving such a sizable award to fiction writers; ten thousand dollars is a significant sum, one that can make a genuine difference in the life of a writer.