
Cricket Carrol (left) and Kristen Sommerfeld (right) first and second place winners in the creative non-fiction category
By Sean Brady
Despite a late launch, the Kootenay Literary Competition saw its highest turn out since its inception, and in front of a full house on Friday night at the Hume hotel, twelve competitors in a variety of genres were awarded their prizes.
Anne DeGrace, an author from Nelson whose latest book Flying with Amelia launched across the country this past fall, spoke about the non-competitive nature of the writing community that she has been a part of in the Kootenays, offering “win or lose, nothing is ever wasted” to the attentive room full of writers, students, friends and family.
The new youth category, divided into grades 7-9 and 10-12, joined the usual categories of poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction and emerging writers, a category aimed at those who are unpublished and have never before received contest winnings.
2011 Kootenay Literary Competition winners:
Youth 7-9
1st Place: Rebecca Bracewell for The Wooden Boy
2nd Place: Gillian Wiley for Charlotte’s Scientific Belief
Youth 10-12
1st Place: Trilby Buck for Mrs. Shaw
2nd Place: Kevin Milde for The Apotheosis of Man
Emerging Writers
1st Place: Shelby Cain for Enter Chaos
2nd Place: Cindy McCallum Miller for Chaos in the Kootenays
Poetry
1st Place: Jordan Mounteer for actaeon sound
Honourable Mention: Elena Banfield for Teleology
Creative Non-Fiction
1st Place: Cricket Carroll for Keep Your Promises
2nd Place: Kristen Sommerfeld for Reminisce With Me
Fiction
1st Place: Martina Avis for The Louisiana Alligator Purchase
2nd Place: Bill Macpherson for In Country
Judges for the competition were Susan Andrews Grace for the poetry category, Rita Moir for creative non-fiction, Almeda Glenn Miller for fiction, Heather Shipitt and Patty Humphries for youth, and Sarah Butler, a 2008 Kootenay Literary Competition winner, for the emerging writers category.
All of the entrants in the youth category also received feedback on their work from the contests’ judges, with the hopes that they will continue writing and submitting their work.
Selkirk College students also had a notable role in the event. Students from Almeda Glenn Miller’s second-year writing class helped to short-list entries for the competition and provided feedback for the judges to review. Other Selkirk students had a strong showing in the competition itself, with Cricket Carroll and Kristen Sommerfeld winning first and second place in the creative non-fiction category of the event.
When asked what it meant to place in a competition like this, 2nd place creative non-fiction winner Kristen Sommerfeld said “It is amazing considering where I came from to where I am now to think that it might just be possible for me to get my story out there and try to have a positive impact on people reading my work.”
Looking forward, Kristene Perron, chair of the Kootenay Literary Competition committee and event organizer, said that next year she hopes to see twice as many entries, and was impressed with this year’s turnout despite the late launch of the event.
The Kootenay Literary Competition 2011 Anthology entitled Chaos, the theme for this year’s event, will be available at Otter Books and contains all winning entries to this year’s competition.