Contest 2003 Winners
Tiny Lights Publications is pleased to announce
the winners of its 9th annual personal essay
contest:
First Prize ($300): "Honolulu Whorehouse, 1944"
by Douglas Stout, Healdsburg, CA
Second Prize ($175): "Grow Old Along With Me" by
Rosemary Manchester, Sebastopol, CA
Third Prize ($125): "Chew" by Colin Berry, Guerneville,
CA
Honorable Mention ($75): "Scalping the Games" by
Rebecca Lawton, Vineburg, CA
Honorable Mention ($75): "Pizza with Stacy" by Bora
Lee Reed, Berkeley, CA
To those who entered Tiny
Lights' 9th annual personal essay contest,
thank you. Your writing helped create a wonderful mix of
work that was delightfully stimulating and difficult to
judge.
So difficult, in fact, that I feel compelled to remind
you that writing markets are unpredictable and more subjective
than most of us dare to acknowledge. As André Maurois was
supposed to have said, "In literature, as in love, we are
astonished by what is chosen by others."
I hope you will be astonished in a positive sense by the
winners of this year's contest, whose work will appear in
Tiny Lights this summer. Contest participants will
receive a copy of this issue. Additional copies can be purchased
for $5 by sending to:
Tiny Lights Publications
P.O. Box 928
Petaluma, CA 94953
Although I am always behind schedule
with "Lights On-Line," I hope to be contacting the finalists
and several semi-finalists about the possibilities of on-line
publication. Writers who agree to appear on the web site
will retain all rights to their essays. No work will be
posted without permission of the author. This year's finalists
(in alphabetical order):
Anne Dimock, Afton, MN for "Señor Adria"
Ken Fraundorf, Corvallis, OR for "Vandals in Fur
Coats"
Dierdre McKee, Philadelphia, PA for "The Umbrella"
Pat Rea, Cotati, CA for "Living in Time"
Lisa Swanstrom, Thousand Oaks, CA for "Saturday"
Other notable entries (in no particular order):
Rodney Lewis Merrill, Confessions of a Compulsive
Tinkerer"; Patricia Harrelson, "Keening"; Jane
Merryman, "At Arm's Length"; Liz Irwin, "Essaying
the Essay"; Holly Jacobson, "Pretty Feet"; Nancy
Linnon, "Hair"; Cheryl Strayed, "Making Tapioca";
Carolyn Trombe, "The Vigil"; Kim Cooper Findling,
"Becoming 20/20; Leonore Wilson, "Guinard Island
No More"; Mary Alexander Walker, "The Bicycle Lock";
Fauna Perkins, "Drooping Rhinoceros, Limping Elephant";
Margaret Griffith-Jones, "Harvest Festival."
As always, keep writing. And
next year, please try your skill and luck with us again.
Susan
Bono, Editor