3rd Place Fiction: "Edison" by Pallavi Dixit

Edison is the story of Prem, a gas-station attendant who must earn $1 million before his true love’s father will allow them to marry.  It’s a Bollywood-style love story brimming with song, dance, action, comedy, a love-triangle, an angry parent, an evil villain, and cameos by real stars – a typical masala film in the guise of literary fiction.

“Before leaving, Amitabh Bachchan pulled his wallet from the pocket of his impossibly long, white slacks.  “For you to add upon,” he said and presented Prem with a stiff dollar bill on which he scribbled his signature before handing it over.  In that instant, with an Amitabh Bachchan dollar in his hand, Prem was overcome with the suddenly renewed possibility of building himself into someone in this country, a man worthy of Leena Engineer, a man of action, an entrepreneur, a success story, a suitable boy, a viable suitor, an extraordinary immigrant in a town of immigrants, a visionary, a husband, a real American hero.”

Bio: Pallavi Sharma Dixit’s (she/her) work has been supported by the Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship Program, Intermedia Arts, the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Loft Literary Center, and the Jerome Foundation Travel and Study Program.  She is a winner of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop’s Pages in Progress contest and holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.  She lives in Minneapolis with her husband, two children and dog, Tiffin.