More than 30 budding writers from across the valley put their writing skills to the test in Okanagan College鈥檚 eighth annual Three-Hour Short Story contest.
Second-year arts student Hannah Stanley of 麻豆精选 is the overall winner for her original story The Best Years of Our Lives.
The 180-minute timed contest was held last month at the college鈥檚 Vernon, Salmon Arm and Penticton campuses and at 麻豆精选 Secondary School. The contest was open to Grade 11, 12 and College students who competed for four regional prizes of $250 in tuition credit.
From the regional winners, an overall winner was selected to win an additional $500 credit and have their story published in a limited fine-print edition by Kalamalka Press.
鈥淚 woke up in the morning feeling very uninspired and I went into the contest without any prior story ideas or anything worked out in my head in advance,鈥� said Stanley. 鈥淚t actually wasn鈥檛 until the clock started and I heard the mystery phrase that I found inspiration and knew what I was going to write about.鈥�
The contest challenges authors to integrate a mystery phrase, revealed at the start of the competition, into their stories. This year鈥檚 phrase, 鈥渇rozen fish sticks,鈥� immediately gave Stanley an image from her childhood of eating fish sticks and ketchup straight off the table, without a plate.
Her winning story is loosely based on her childhood experiences and is told from a child鈥檚 perspective about what life was like one year when, unknown to Stanley, her mother was experiencing depression.
鈥淭he goal of the story is to kind of take away the stigma of parents with a mental illness like depression who are worried they鈥檙e not a good enough parent or are somehow ruining their children鈥檚 lives,鈥� said Stanley. 鈥淭he child doesn鈥檛 notice anything wrong with her mother and actually finds it to be one of the best years of her childhood because she gets to eat unlimited Freezies, has tons of sleepovers and finds eating without plates or cutlery incredibly fun.鈥�
Stanley鈥檚 story was one of many captivating narratives from the contest which drew out a diverse group of authors aged 16 to 43.
鈥淲e saw a large age span this year from previous years which added a lot of interest and made the competition pretty close 鈥� it was tough to choose just one overall winner,鈥� said Dr. Sean Johnson, contest organizer and English professor at the College. 鈥淭here is almost a 30-year age difference between the regional winners which just goes to show the uniqueness of this competition, that regardless of age anyone can win.鈥�
Dawn Naas鈥檚 Un-Fragmenting Thoughts was selected as the Vernon regional winner, Darby McEachern-Corley was declared the Salmon Arm regional winner for The Eyes Never Lie and Parker Arcand took home the Penticton regional award for Hearts of Metal and Ice.
This year鈥檚 winning stories can be read online at www.okanagan.bc.ca/3hourwriting.
