Writers Helping Readers for 21 Years
By Tena Laing
2014 Winner: Adult
“You’re gonna have t’ face it, Veronica. You knows you are.”
Dad broke the silence he’d held all the way from the airport as we came around the bend off the winding Viking Trail, and took the turnoff for Tickle Point. As the car edged closer to the dip in the high road that would reveal the scenic bay and community spread below, despite myself, I felt that old magnetic pull in my guts. [Read more…]
By Jennifer Turney
2019 Winner: Adult
It was another Friday in June; the day they had been waiting for all week. There had been frost on the windows that morning that had since melted away as the sun climbed. The nights were still cool enough to keep a fire burning low in the stove. For once Matty’s mother hadn’t had to rush him to finish his lunch so they could walk into town. His shoes were already tied as she came down the stairs, at least, as tied as a five-year old’s can be when in a hurry. [Read more…]
By Lenore Butcher
2019 Honourable Mention: Adult
Thursday dawned with ominous dark clouds in the sky. Krystia, always sensitive to barometric pressure changes, had a headache and seemed out of sorts. She had planned to head over to the spa site to check on the progress but ended up deciding to stay home in bed all day and see if she couldn’t soothe it away. Thursday night was family night and she didn’t want to ruin it by feeling ill. [Read more…]
by Kevin Craig
2008 Winner: Adult
My mother was always losing things. She once lost my dead sister. She spent years looking for her, but by the time she had lost Deja she was far too gone to realize there’s no finding the dead. When you lose sight of them, they are gone forever.
I was ten years old when Deja died. She was the oldest Reason child—gifted, bright, and headstrong. She had just finished high school and was contemplating her next steps in life, pondering her choices. [Read more…]
by Kevin Craig
2007 Winner: Adult
I first met the poet in 1973. I was a child, cleaning up after one of my father’s infamous parties. I can still recall that encounter. I found the poet passed out on our living room couch. He was sprawled in such a way I had to move his arms to clear the mess on the coffee table. His hand was resting inside the detritus of an overflowing ashtray. Putting my collection of beer bottles down on the table, I tried to move his hand without waking him. [Read more…]
by Christina Kilbourne
2002 Over-all Winner
After Hamar died, I took the kids into town for pizza. Gunner had been to the pizza restaurant lots of times before, but the other kids never had. So we dressed up in our best clothes, the same we wore to the cemetery for Hamar’s funeral, and piled into the truck. Gunner drove with the twins and me in the front seat: the boys sat in the truck bed with their backs against the cab and their arms hugging their knees. It was a warm day and the sun was burning strong. I felt good with a bit of Hamar’s money tucked in my pocket and my kids smiling and chattering with excitement. Gunner looked proud to be driving us, going out to dinner like a family from a TV show, and I was proud of him, my eldest. I knew I wouldn’t often spend the money on stuff like this, but now and then I thought we deserved it.