Jon Gingerich
Jon Gingerich

Jon Gingerich, senior editor of O’Dwyer’s, has won The Saturday Evening Post’s “2020 Great American Fiction Contest.”

In addition to a $500 prize, The Saturday Evening Post has published Gingerich’s winning story, “Thornhope, Indiana,” in the Jan./Feb. issue of its flagship print magazine, as well as online. The story will also appear in a digital anthology. According to Post editors, Gingerich’s story was named winner out of hundreds of entries.

“Thornhope, Indiana” is a short story about a teenager who decides to leave his family farm by fixing the car left behind by his deceased brother.

Post editors said they picked the story due to “Gingerich’s skillful storytelling and his potent, evocative language.”

Gingerich has edited O’Dwyer’s print magazine since 2006. He was previously a reporter for a daily business newspaper in Columbus, OH. Prior to that, he worked at a Columbus-based publisher of weekly newspapers. He received his bachelor’s degree from The Ohio State University and an MFA in creative writing from The New School in New York.

Also a fiction instructor at the Gotham Writers Workshop, Gingerich has been publishing fiction in literary journals since 2008. “Thornhope, Indiana” is his first work published in a national consumer magazine.