Janet Burroway, a finalist in Narrative’s Fourteenth Annual Poetry Contest and First Place winner in the 2017 Winter Story Contest, is the author of numerous novels, including The Buzzards, Raw Silk, and Bridge of Sand. Her work also includes short fiction, plays, poetry, essays, texts for dance, and children’s books. In addition, she coauthored Writing Fiction, the most widely used creative writing text in America. Burroway is the Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor Emerita at Florida State University.

Despair

A Six-Word Story

by Janet Burroway

All those pages in the fire.