2020 Nason Smith Lit Prize Images annually awards The Nason Smith Lit Prize to a Delgado student with exceptional literary talent. The prize includes publication & acknowledgement in Images, a $100 award, 10 broadsides posted around campus, and 2 broadsides given to the winner. Nason Smith was a faculty member and exceptional literary talent who passed in 2016. He was a devoted Grateful Dead listener so a quote from the song, “Box of Rain,” seems fitting: “Such a long, long time to be gone / And a short time to be there.” For 2020’s prize, the student editors have chosen Matt Valerio’s short story, “Clay.” Enjoy the ride!
CLAY They were walking up an orange dune. The sun shone so brightly it seemed to be punishing the sand around them. The strange green cacti-like plants were every 10 feet. The deep green offered quite a contrast to the dark red clay that made up the ground. These were the only things they could see - clay, sand, cacti, clay, sand, cacti. The galaxy’s sun had rings surrounding it, which eerily caused each cacti to have two shadows. They stopped walking once they made it down the hill. He put his pack on the ground to use to hold his back up while he lay 6
Images 2020
Matt Valerio down. Before he did, he grabbed a cigarette from one of the many backpack pockets. “Can I have one?” she asked. He paused and said, “Why don’t you smoke some of that other stuff you brought?” “I’m rationing it. It’s the only thing that helps me sleep. Who knows how much longer we’ll be here?” His face muscles tightened, and he reluctantly pulled another cigarette
