2022 Contest

2022 Winner: “Jean-Pierre Melville is Dead” by Soren Eversoll

Soren Eversoll“Jean-Pierre Melville is Dead” by Soren Eversoll, a sophomore at Carleton College, has been selected as the winning story in the 50th annual ACM Nick Adams Short Story Contest.

In his comments on Eversoll’s story, final judge Steve Berry praised Eversoll’s use of structure and plot, adding that another quality made the story stick in his head. “It had resonance. A magic word. Something all writers strive for. It’s a tough concept to imagine and even harder to create, but the writer of this story accomplished both,” Berry said.

Eversoll, who is from St. Paul, Minnesota, is pursuing an English major and creative writing minor at Carleton College. “I began writing fiction myself around the fifth grade by making mystery stories I would then give to my friends and family,” explained Eversoll, a lifelong reader. In addition to short stories, he is passionate about film and would like to further explore screenwriting and playwriting.

Learn more and meet the other finalists »

2022 Final Judge: Steve Berry

Author Steve Berry selected the prize-winning story in ACM’s 50th Nick Adams Short Story Contest. Greg Smith, Professor of English at Carleton College, and Sequoia Nagamatsu, Associate Professor of English at St. Olaf College, served as initial readers for the contest, selecting five finalists from which Berry selected the winning story.

Photo Credit: Kelly Campbell

Steve Berry is the bestselling author of more than twenty novels, including the Cotton Malone series, the most recent of which, The Kaiser’s Web (2021), investigates the events and consequences of a fateful day in 1945 Germany. His bibliography also includes several standalone novels such as The Omega Factor, to be released later this year, which spotlights the fragility of the world’s cultural artifacts as well as the secrets they can unearth. Berry’s debut, The Amber Room (2003), is “a globe-trotting treasure hunt packed with exotic locales, sumptuous art, and ruthless villains,” according to Dan Brown, bestselling author of The Da Vinci Code (2003). Berry’s books have sold 25 million copies in 52 countries and have been translated into 41 languages.

About the Nick Adams Short Story Contest

The Nick Adams Short Story Contest, now in its 50th year, is open to students currently enrolled at ACM colleges. Students must submit their entries to the English department on their home campus. The contest was established in 1973 with funds from an anonymous donor to encourage fiction writing at ACM colleges. Named for the young hero of many Hemingway stories, the contest offers a prize of $1,000 for the best story by an ACM student.

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