Fiction
Brian Leung
Brian Leung is author of the novels Ivy vs. Dogg: With a Cast of Thousands!, Lost Men, and Take Me Home. He is a past recipient of the Lambda Literary Outstanding Mid-Career Prize. Other honors include the Asian-American Literary Award, Willa Award, and the Mary McCarthy Prize. Brian’s fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry have appeared in numerous magazines and journals. He is a former Director of Creative Writing at Purdue University, and has forthcoming novel, What a Mother Won’t Do (C&R Press,) due out in 2021.
2020 Fiction Shortlist: Ivy vs Dogg: With a Cast of Thousands!
Teenage Ivy Simmons has a longstanding rivalry with Jimmy, “Dogg,” Doggins, high school tennis star, and hometown hero. Their sparring comes to a head when the town of Mudlick’s annual Jr. Mr. Mayor election is announced and Ivy becomes the first female ever to run. Mudlick’s busybody leaders, known as “the committee” do not approve, especially when Ivy reveals that she is pregnant. Displeased with the public debate over what Ivy should do about her unborn child, reclusive matriarch, Abigail Colton, displays a lifelike topiary girl on her front lawn, enchanting all of Mudlick to the point where they fear for the life of this “girl” when Colton also rolls out a topiary of a giant squid. Between this and the election, emotions run high, squeezing Ivy and Dogg from all sides and forcing them to make the most adult decision of their lives.
