Murgatroyd Monaghan – “The Train”
(forthcoming in the Humber Literary Review)
“The Train” unfolds a story of strangers on a train who find unlikely ways to bond over their various experiences of sadness and death, with the narrator’s children igniting interactions and sparking connections in ways only children can. The children are brilliant, the dialogue crisp, the character development deftly handled. The piece cleverly incorporates the best techniques of fiction into creative nonfiction to reveal a true storyteller’s voice. Bravo.
(Comments by 2024 judge, Lisa Bird-Wilson)