Let’s get one thing straight. If someone poses the hypothetical question, who would win in a fight, The Kaiju from Pacific Rim, The Jaegers from Pacific Rim, or Godzilla, the answer isn’t Godzilla.

No, the correct answer is, “Godzilla, dumbass.”

Why? Because he’s fucking Godzilla. He’s a mutant lizard born from the side effects of nuclear testing who didn’t have to crawl out of the Marianas Trench to destroy cities or take a hiatus from SAMCRO to kill other monsters. He’s been doing both — and doing them better than anyone — for like sixty years. Plain and simple. He’s Godzilla. He took down a three-headed, lightening-breathing, instellar-travelling King Ghidorah, not to mention the mechanized version of said three-headed creature. He’s defeated Gamorrah, Rhodan, Mothra, King Kong, a giant robot version of King Kong, whatever the hell that Smog Monster thing was, a robotic version of himself, and who knows what the fuck else was lurking around Monster Island when the cameras weren’t rolling. You think he’s gonna sweat some overgrown calamari or Jax Teller in a Transformer suit?

Jesus in Heaven, do we have to explain everything?

Let any further debate be squelched by atomic breath, much like, oh, say, anything or anyone who’s ever tried to go toe to toe with Godzilla.

That’s right: Atomic. Fucking. Breath.

Winner? Still champion? Godzilla.

Now that that’s out of the way…

Jersey Devil Press is proud to announce its editorial nominees for the 2013 storySouth Awards. JDP is pleased to participate in this prestigious competition celebrating the written word as expressed in the online medium. Culling three favorites from our list of 2012 Pushcart nominees, we have selected:

“We Left Him with the Dragging Man,” by Graham Tugwell
“About the Hiding of Buried Treasure,” by Kimberly Lojewski
“Paper Heart,” by Ally Malinenko

In addition to these three stories, all stories published by Jersey Devil Press during the 2012 calendar year (excepting reprints and flash under 1000 words) are eligible for readers to nominate individually. Be sure to check all of storySouth’s guidelines for reader nominations and pencil in your favorite story. Only one vote per person, so choose wisely.

Congratulations to Graham, Kimberly, and Ally.

Thanks to all the writers who trust us with their work.

Thanks to storySouth for keeping this great competition going for another year.

Thanks always to Godzilla, because he rocks.