Stephen Donnellan Moss (1948–2005) was an American editor and publisher who founded two major weekly newspapers in California's Central Coast and created the 55 Fiction short story contest.
He financed it with a few thousand dollars raised by cashing in his IRA account and borrowing from his aunt, Professor Mary Josephine Moss of San Jose State University.
Farrell brought his writer friends Joan Didion and her husband John Gregory Dunne to the class, making a lasting impression.
Given a choice between a job in the advertising department of a large international winery in Modesto, or one as editor of a senior citizen newspaper in San Luis Obispo, he chose the latter despite the lower pay.
A literary work is considered 55 Fiction if it has: The contest was successful and popular from the beginning with New Times readers, and remains an annual event.