I know it’s not funny to laugh at a dog’s misfortune but when Lee Moss wrote, “I remember the day my dog accidentally lost his testicles” I laughed out loud because I never imagined anyone taking the phrase, "I remember the day" and ending it that way. The five finalists submitted their creative nonfiction pieces to the Times Colonist on Monday and I got down to work reading them.
I appreciated every single entry, I did. I took something away from each one whether it was an image of a single-room home darkened by smoke, or an effective line of dialogue: “You’re a useless carpenter, mate,” he said. “Useless.” I learned things. I learned about the radiation bullet, iodine 131, and what it takes to swallow it, and about how the world looks through a colonoscopy. And yes, even for that last one, I was grateful. These writers took risks.
Now, having said that, when I read over the submissions I thought there were a couple of people who might have to step up their game. There are some writers here who are setting the bar high and taking this opportunity seriously. The contest is a chance for the writers to publish their work and to reach a large audience.
There are many competitions out there, but few of them publish the work involved. Publication credits are enormously valuable to a writer. They open doors to grants, to other writing schools, and agents and publishers. As any writer will tell you, it’s hard to get your work published, and so my advice to these writers is to grab this chance. I mean, really take it and run... and dream big. You never know what’s going to come out of it. Much more than the prize, I suspect.
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