Residents from Parksville and Nanoose took home awards at the 2019 Islands Short Fiction Contest.
Awards were presented at a ceremony on April 27 in Nanaimo. Co-sponsored by the Nanaimo Arts Council, the Vancouver Island Regional Library, and the Vancouver Island University Department of Creative Writing and Journalism, the awards are open to writers on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands. One hundred and twenty-seven entries were received this year across three categories: Adult, Youth, and Junior.
The first-prize story in the Junior category went to Thunya Dudley of Nanoose for her story The Old Clock.
“[The Old Clock] is a cool mix of fantastical and realistic,” said judge Nathan McKay. “There’s wild stuff with elves and glow pumpkins and wishes but it’s grounded by a main character with very human motivation.”
The second-prize winner in the category was Esmé Iverson (Duncan) for The Patchwork Girl while third-prize went to Carolynn Warren (Comox) for The Super Cookie.
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Winner of first-prize in the Adult category, as chosen by judge Stephen Guppy, was Katy Weicker of Victoria for her story Tinder Embers.
Second-prize went to Jonathan Sean Lyster of Parksville for Target Market, while Dawn Stofer of Denman Island won third-prize for Identities Reclaimed.
Receiving Honourable Mentions were Robert Bowerman (Nanaimo) for I’ve Got You Now, Jim Creighton (Campbell River) for Old Growth, Cornelia Hoogland (Hornby Island) for 1-800-WHERE-R-YOU, David Reichheld (Sooke) for Let Morning Bring Me, and Délani Valin (Nanaimo) for Potemkin.
In the Youth category, the first-prize winner was Charlotte Taylor of Nanaimo for Calm Before the Storm.
Second-prize was awarded to Yinan Cao (Nanaimo) for Stray and Jocelyn Diemer (Campbell River) received third-prize for Burning Away.
Honourable mentions went to Kaitlyn Ha (Nanaimo) for “Clouds” and Linnea Wiggers (Nanaimo) for “The Adventure of Arthur May.”
More than $2,200 in cash and prizes was awarded.
Most of the winning stories are posted shortly on the contest website at https://isfc.ca, where past winners may also be read.
— NEWS staff, submitted