Dear Mr. Gottlieb

The winning entry in our ninth annual short story contest is unlike anything I’ve ever read. Alan Sincic’s “Dear Mr. Gottlieb” is written in an absurdist, stream-of-consciousness style that has shades of Hunter S. Thompson and James Joyce—but a voice all its own. Based extremely loosely on the format of a job application, the piece is a funny, nonsensical satire of corporate life. ¶ It’s a fitting selection by this year’s guest judge, Fernando A. Flores. Flores’ work is also gleefully strange: His most recent book, Tears of the Trufflepig, is a borderland dystopia featuring bioengineered animals in neon colors. When asked what he looks for in a short story, he said, “The ones that stay with me take some kind of risk, strive for something greater, unknown, undefined, and afterward leave you lost in the woods of what you read.” That’s definitely true of “Dear Mr. Gottlieb.” After the story, writer Alan Sincic shares a few thoughts about what inspired him.

The song of the haughty amoeba, the offering at the altar of the God of Mammon, the Sacred Dance of the Seven Veils: the employment application letter.

NO, YOU DO NOT KNOW ME, BUT LET ME assure you that I’m not like any of the other people