Polished to Perfection: Blume’s ‘Spit-Shine’ Earns Recognition
ÃÛÌÒµ¼º½ Creative Writing MFA candidate Rachel Blume has earned national recognition as her short story, Spit-Shine, has reached the final round of judging for the AWP Intro Awards. This prestigious competition, hosted by the Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP), recognizes outstanding work by emerging writers enrolled in BA, MA, MFA, and PhD creative writing programs across the country.
Blume’s achievement places her among some of the most promising new voices in contemporary literature. The AWP Intro Awards serve as a launching pad for early-career writers, with winning pieces published in Intro Journals, a collection that showcases exceptional talent from academic writing programs. AWP, the leading national organization for creative writers and writing programs, also hosts the largest annual literary conference in North America and fosters a thriving network of writers, journals, and publishers dedicated to advancing the literary arts.
Blume’s finalist story, Spit-Shine, explores themes of familial responsibility, moral dilemmas, and the struggle for redemption. The narrative follows Mick, a man entrenched in the remnants of his past, as he grapples with his younger brother’s desperate decision to kidnap his own child. Blume was inspired by These Silent Woods and Southernmost, two novels that address parental child abduction but left her unsatisfied with their conclusions. “I wrote Spit-Shine as an alternative answer to the sa