WINNER ANNOUNCED IN LIBRARY SHOP’S ANNUAL CONTEST WITH A COVID TWIST

SAN DIEGO

The San Diego Library Shop has unmasked the winner of its quirky annual writing contest, in which entries have to fit on the inside of a matchbook cover.

This year, because of COVID-19, they had to fit on the outside of a face mask.

Michele Garb won with this nod to the awkwardness and mystery of early romance:

After their date he turns to her, pausing. Smiling, she gets ready to say: I had fun too, or yes let’s do this again, or even, I love you too. But he says, “This has been really weird.”

This was the fourth annual short-short story contest. (About 40 words can fit on a matchbook or a mask.) It started as “an oddball challenge” and has grown into a popular program that draws entries from around the country, according to Scott Ehrig-Burgess, manager of the Library Shop, a gift shop located in the downtown Central Library and owned by the San Diego Public Library Foundation.

When he announced the shift from matchbooks to masks earlier this year, Ehrig-Burgess said, “Libraries have always adapted to the needs of the communities they serve, so we thought a Maskbook Story contest might help bring some brief joy to the necessary duty of wearing a mask.”

He added that given the year’s calamities, which included devastating brush fires, “the Library Shop felt the last thing we needed are more matches in the world.”

Library shop staff members winnowed the entries to 11 finalists. The winners from the three previous years — Tara Gilboy, Cristina Schaffer and Kate Fellowes — then made the final selection, which was announced in a virtual ceremony.

The ceremony also featured live readings of the finalists by Write Out Loud performers, a musical montage tribute to the earlier winners, and perhaps the shortest awards-show acceptance speech in history by Garb: “I’m speechless.”

For winning, Garb receives a copy of her entry printed on a cloth mask, a $50 gift card to the Library Shop, and publication of the story in the library’s newsletter, which goes out to about 200,000 patrons. Her story will also go on display in the Central Library’s Hervey Family Rare Book Room — in the tiny-book section, of course.

Ehrig-Burgess said 100 masks will be printed with Garb’s winning story on them and sold to the public through the Library Shop for $15 each. Proceeds from the sales, as well as those from the $5 contest entry fees, go to support library programs.