Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Three Examples of Great Hooks

I've written some about story hooks in previous posts. Here are three wonderful examples of excellent story hooks from the winners of Narrative Magazine's Winter Story Contest.

Now I know why these stories won...

Read the hooks for yourself:

FIRST PLACE
Christmas Eve
by Kevin A. González
“TWO DAYS AGO, my father was making French fries and started a fire in her kitchen. It didn’t spread too bad, but the cabinets all melted and the stove was a total loss. When I heard the sirens from the pool, I knew it was my father: it’s not the first place he’s burned down.”

SECOND PLACE
Maine Night
by Debra Spark
“IN NORMAL FAMILIES, a late-night phone call means only one thing: tragedy. A drunken mishap. A car crash. A heart giving out. Maybe a decapitation or a roadside bomb, the twenty-first century offering an escalating range of horrors. But the Pearlmans are not a normal family.”

THIRD PLACE
Fatherland
by Viet Thanh Nguyen
“EVEN AFTER A WEEK in Saigon, Vivien would appear no more of a native than on the day she arrived. On the streets, she was easily mistaken for a Korean businessman’s frazzled wife or a weary Japanese tourist, her frosting of makeup melting under the tropical glare.”

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