Category: Kootenay Literary Competition

[two_columns_one] It always starts with two Two who begin the thing Who are the trunk of the tree The trunk of this tree History repeats, retreats         Past down the trunk rooted firmly to feed from the first mother, swallowing the whole of the world,         Those grand-folk stories at twilight back every tangled direction,

New Canadians – First Place   On October 20, 1954, my mother and I boarded the ocean liner, Vulcania, from the port of Genoa, Italy. As I was very young, (almost 4 years old), the enormity of this trip did not fully register. However, I do have some recollections of the journey. I remember waving

  Adult New Canadian – First Place Foreword: I met the old man only once, almost 30 years ago. But his words of compassion and wisdom spoken to me in a heart-breaking situation changed my awareness of life forever. My gratitude for his gift is still present; just as much as my shame not even

Youth – First Place   “My time’s run out,” Queen Isdron says. The dying woman is ashen, her voice steel. “Tomorrow you will be Queen.” Although this frozen statue has raised me since childhood, her looming death doesn’t inspire grief in me. She’s a hard woman, feared throughout her land of ice. She summoned me

Adult Personal Non-Fiction – First Place     I do not iron. My mother, however, approached this chore in a unique and careful way, which was startling in such a chaotic, tumbledown house of five children of all ages. She, who was usually so free in all things, had three strict rules. One: she always

Adult Personal Non-Fiction – Second Place     It’s New Year’s Eve and I begin my annual ritual.  I conceal my daddy’s shotgun between the mattress and box spring of my bed, and gather my tiny brother and young sister to curl up with me on the lumpy hiding place.  I tell them stories about

Adult Fiction – Second Place    Paul awoke at 2:49 am fresh from the dream; not a dream, the dream. The same dream that had struck every night since he and his wife, Karen, had opened their boutique hotel in the Slocan valley. In his dream, Paul had moved out of a house where he

Adult Fiction Submissions – First Place   Well, I know which came first of course. Black Bart…wait, was it?  I think so. The time frame is helter-skelter concerning my initial acquaintance with the divine Ms. van Hellemonde though. Curse her. Was it at the cafe outside the Gare du Nord on a crisply invigorating spring

Sing me a song I know I want to remember my past so in that far off dream when our futures cross I will remember Say to me now the words I long to hear speak them softly for I’ve been listening since the first day of my birth I heard you in some far