2007 Award Winner
Postcard story writing is a relatively new genre that has already carved out a distinctive audience with its blend of prose and verse. Through its use of sound and sharp imagery this powerful new form translates strong emotion in economical form. The Writers' Union of Canada initiated its inaugural Postcard Story Competition in 1999 to discover, encourage, and promote writers of fiction and nonfiction in this form. The winning entry will be printed in postcard format and will be distributed in the Union's Newsletter.
This year, 28 Union members donated their time and expertise to read over 710 outstanding submissions and distill them into a longlist of 140 stories. These stories went on to a second round of twenty readers who selected the finalists to pass on to the 2007 Jury (Ami McKay, Arthur Black, and Welwyn Wilton Katz).
WINNER:
”Trout Fishing” by Dianne Scott
"...the use of language was exquisite, neither attracting too much attention to the cleverness of the author, nor resorting to dullness or cliches. / The story was so very short and so very subtle, that it was entirely possible to overlook its depths upon first reading. / We liked its ambiguity as much as we wanted to know unambiguously what the author was doing. This was quite a stunning feat in a story so short, and this author deserves a lot of praise for what he/she didn't write, as much as for what he/she did." (Jury)
Dianne Scott’s poetry and fiction have been published in a variety of Canadian literary journals including The Prairie Journal, Other Voices, Taddle Creek, The New Quarterly, and the Windsor Review. Her stories have been finalists in The Writers’ Union of Canada Postcard Story Contest and This Magazine’s Great Canadian Literary Hunt. Her current works-in-progress include a short story collection and a book on motherhood.
FINALISTS
”A Man. A Woman. A Bed.” by Cecile A. Ryder
”A Part” by Robin Elizabeth Crombie
”Bag of Hammers” by Rebecca Whitley
”Declaration” by Jancis M. Andrews
”Dry Fire” by Andrew Boden
”Five Minutes to Midnight” by Michaela Onasick
”Mercy Markham” by Shaun Sheehan
”Starving” by Twyla Carolan
”Snap” by Colleen Marlin
”Taking the Plunge” by Marlene Ritchie
”Wheels of Love” by Susan McNicoll
READERS FOR THE COMPETITION
Kelli Deeth, Christina Senkiw, Jennifer Alexandra Duncan, Anne Logan McNamara, Loris Lesynski, L.M. Falcone, Allan Weiss, Kristen den Hartog, Susan Glickman, Ann Birch, Agron Manaj, John F. Jansen in de Wal, Iris Nowell, Simon Leigh, Joanna Manning, Deb Loughead, Halli Villegas, Shannon Bramer, Marvyne Jenoff, Erinn Banting, Brian Day, Anne Hines, Joe Kertes, Faruk Myrtaj, Anne Denoon, Pauline Couture, Thelma Barer-Stein, Mary-Lou Zeitoun, A.J. Mallinson, Amanda Lamarche, Bill Schermbrucker, Cynthia Holz, Joyce White, Dave Glaze, Betty Cullen, Sally Cooper, Paul Vasey, Judy Ann Sadler, Derek Evans, Kayla Perrin, Dorothy Pedersen, Elaine Breault Hammond, Zoe Landale, Peri Phillips McQuay, Bob Jones, Lorraine M. Williams, Don Atkinson.
FINAL JURY
Ami McKay, Arthur Black, and Welwyn Wilton Katz.
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