Snacks + readings

So Jennifer Still and I judged this year's poetry contest for the Writers' Collective of Manitoba.

We made our decisions over foamy-milk tea and pinwheel cookies and read the poems vying for win-place-show aloud. Which is not a bad way to spend a Friday afternoon, it seems to me.

The gala where the awards are handed out relies on much the same equation, in that there are both snacks and readings. Maybe not foamy-milk tea, but still, tea. With cream and sugar.

So thanks to the Writers' Collective and administrator/writer Michael Van Rooy for having Jenn and I again as judges and to Jenn herself and, finally, to all that submitted.

* * *

And the Winners of the 2010 Winnipeg Free Press/Writers` Collective Non-Fiction and Poetry Contests are . . .

NON-FICTION
First Place – Epitaph for El Toro’s by Rachel DeGagne, $500.00 and a year’s membership to the Writers’ Collective.
Second Place – Down to the Willows by William Backman, $300.00 and a year’s membership to the Writers’ Collective.
Third Place – Airport by Jessy Arden, $100.00 and a year’s membership to the Writers’ Collective.
Honourable Mention – The Woodcutters by Denise Jacobs, a year’s membership to the Writers’ Collective.
Honourable Mention – Mom’s Dream by Virginia Johnson, a year’s membership to the Writers’ Collective.

POETRY
First Place (tie) - Predator by Lindsey Childs, $150.00 and a year’s membership to the Writers’ Collective.
First Place (tie) - Therapy by Jessy Arden, $150.00 and a year’s membership to the Writers’ Collective.
Second Place – things she won’t say by M.E. Powell, $100.00 and a year’s membership to the Writers’ Collective.
Third Place – folding by Debbie Strange, $50.00 and a year’s membership to the Writers’ Collective.
Honourable Mention – Through A Glass Darkly by Judith Johanson, a year’s membership to the Writers’ Collective.
Honourable Mention – Twister by Don Trent James, a year’s membership to the Writers’ Collective.

Winners will be published in the Winnipeg Free Press and in an upcoming issue of the Collective Consciousness.

Many thanks to the Winnipeg Free Press for their ongoing support of this contest.

Thanks also to the judges; Gerald Flood, Ariel Gordon, Chandra Mayor, Jennifer Still and Michael Van Rooy.

Gala Awards Night!

Everyone is invited to the Gala Awards Night honoring the participants in this year’s contests.

The evening will begin at 7:00 pm on Thursday, December 9, in the Carol Shields Auditorium at the Millennium Library (251 Donald Street, Winnipeg, Manitoba).

Readings by winners will be featured and all are welcome. Light refreshments will be served.