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- calendar_today November 2, 2026
Cai Emmons: A Renowned Voice in Magical Realism and Literary Fiction
Cai Emmons, an acclaimed Eugene-based novelist, made her mark on Oregon’s literary history with imaginative stories featuring characters who control the weather, women transforming into dogs, and monks reflecting on their troubled pasts. Works such as Weather Woman, Sinking Islands, and the psychological thriller His Mother’s Son were celebrated for their exploration of difficult and taboo subjects, with Emmons recognized nationally for her contributions to the genre of magical realism.
A Lasting Impact on Eugene’s Writing Community
Beyond her writing, Emmons served as a professor at the University of Oregon and taught at the non-profit Wordcrafters in Eugene. Her support for fellow writers was widely noted. Jeaux Bartlett of Wordcrafters reflected, “If I saw her speak or teach, the passion and the energy that she exuded felt like home to me. I resonated with her as a person, and then also with her writing.” Emmons became a model of encouragement and mentorship for many within Eugene’s vibrant literary scene.
Establishing the Cai Emmons Short Fiction Contest
To honor Emmons’s influence and memory, Wordcrafters launched the Cai Emmons Short Fiction Contest, now in its second year in 2026. Open to writers across Oregon and Washington, the contest asks entrants to submit stories up to 3,000 words that embody themes central to Emmons’s work—female protagonists, grief, family dynamics, and magical realism. The winner is awarded a $700 writing contest prize, and the top seven stories appear in the annual anthology Cai Emmons Short Fiction Contest.
A Collaboration Among Friends and Family
The contest emerged from a collaboration between Jeaux Bartlett and Miriam Gershow, a friend of Emmons’s for 15 years and the 2025 head judge. They worked with Emmons’s husband, Paul Calandrino, for approval and support. Calandrino, who was closely involved in Emmons’s creative process, emphasized, “Cai’s concerns as a writer are very important social concerns. She was very interested in women’s issues and in the environment… I believe that Cai’s work was underappreciated when she was alive and writing, and I like to get her name out there.”
The Emmons-Calandrino Family Trust has contributed to various community organizations, including local theater, FOOD for Lane County, and Emmons’s publisher Red Hen Press. Calandrino commended Wordcrafters for fostering new writers’ development through the contest, highlighting the importance of providing opportunities for emerging talent.
Uplifting New Voices: Judging and Publication
The contest process consists of three judging rounds, beginning with screening for guideline adherence, followed by volunteer judges, and culminating with the head judge selecting the winners. In 2025, memoirist Debra Gwartney serves as head judge. Gershow noted the high quality and inventive nature of past submissions, citing last year’s grand prize-winning story, “The Bechdel Protocol” by Scott Colley, as “ambitious… weird and it is just like a little gem of a story.”
Bartlett encourages community involvement through volunteer judging and highlights the mental health benefits of writing on challenging themes: “I think that there’s really this healing power in writing about difficult things because it makes you put them into language, which makes you process them in an entirely different way.”
Entry and Participation Details
The Cai Emmons Short Fiction Contest is open until November 30. Entry fees are $7, $5 for members, with waivers available for BIPOC, QTGNC, and disabled writers. Regional writers are invited to participate either by submitting stories or volunteering as judges to help curate the next anthology. Further information can be found at WordCrafters.org.
Source: eugeneweekly.com.
