MORE THAN 30 ENTRANTS
Ed’s Books Short Story Contest announces its winner.
“John Norman MacDonald is a human equivalent of a doubleedged sword — at once the most praised and the most cursed man in two counties.
“He has the lightest hands and the heaviest foot. He has the biggest truck and the littlest house, the biggest gut and the littlest mutt. He has the biggest mouth and the biggest heart. He’s a redneck and an artist. He works every day and never gets off his ass.”
That’s the opening to “A Wing and A Prayer,” the first place finisher by West Bay author, Mike Hunter, in this year’s Ed’s Books and More Annual Short Story Contest run from the Charlotte Street, Sydney, business.
Hunter’s short story beat out almost thirty other entrants in the senior division of Cape Breton’s biggest, and perhaps, only public literary competition. And by “senior,” the division refers to writers not in their teens or under.
Joining Hunter on this year’s metaphorical podium, are second place winner, Tim Vassallo, in third place, Tim Vassallo, in fourth position, Charlotte Musial (whose book of memoir and poetry, “The Night Life of Chairs,” was recently published by Boulardrie Island Press) and in the fifth place slot, Tim Vassallo.
Hunter will be familiar to Cape Breton readers as the editor in chief of Cape Breton University Press from 2003 to 2016. During his tenure he grew the press from publishing four books a year to ten books annually on a variety of subjects from academic research to popular fiction like Frank MacDonald’s “A Forest for Calum.”
Before coming to CBU, Hunter had wide experience in journalism and freelance writing.
In an online post, Hunter congratulated his fellow winners and offered “kudos to Ed Gillis (owner of Ed’s Books & More) for keeping this annual competition going, and for valuing our creative culture on Cape Breton.”
Gillis says the number of entries were lower this year, 40 as opposed to 60 in 2017, mostly because the competition had a later start this year, as opposed to an opening date for submissions in September in previous years.
Gillis says he is always impressed by the quality of the young adult writers entering the contest.
This year, there were one 14 and one 15-year-old entrants and ten 11-year-old contestants.
There was a tie between Marissa Cox and Ryan Martin for the Youth Division title with Zoey Dicks, Abbie Neville, and Alexis Marsh placing second, third and fourth respectively. For their
impressive work, Gillis says, he awarded the other seven entrants gift cards for the book shop.
Gillis states one of his goals for next year’s contest is to open it up for more young writers by working with area schools to publicize the contest and by waiving the entry fee.
As it stands, there is a $10 entry fee for each short story submitted with the pool of fees being divided between the winning writers.
To give a taste of the quality of writing from the youth division, here are excerpts from the two winning stories.
First from Marissa Cox’s “Locked or Unlocked:”
“’You’re Christine, right?’ pose the unknown girl who had pulled me into the alley. She looked around, as if something was about to happen, which made me worry.
“’Um…yeah, why?’ I responded.
I studied this girl. She couldn’t have been much older than I was, with the contrast of pale skin against her charcoal black hair and dark leather. She made me think that she was on a mission.
“She said, ‘I’m Kaya, and I need you to help me, well, your gift I guess.’”
This is from “The Things In My Attic” by Ryan Martin of Bras d’Or:
“I’m going to get right to the point: there’s some really weird stuff up in my attic. No, weird isn’t the right word. Dangerous.
There’s some really dangerous stuff up in my attic; stuff that shouldn’t be there, stuff that shouldn’t exit at all. In fact, the entire attic is a spatial impossibility. I’ve done the measurements, and the attic should not be as big as it is.”
Makes you want to keep reading. Or perhaps for some people, sit down and start composing their own entries for next year’s competition.