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And the Short Story Winners Are . . . By Kent d Curry
ninetyandnine had no idea what we’d receive when we declared a short story contest, but we knew it was long overdue. About seven years ago The Conqueror ran a national contest, but there’s not too much encouragement of the arts (outside of music) in our movement (or in most other religious organizations), so we thought it was time to offer some money for some talent. After all, it will not be our preaching that defines us to outsiders, but our stories, the daily presentation of our life to others.
The Stories We were happy with the response. (ninetyandnine received stories from Virginia, Missouri, Alabama, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Texas.)
We were touched and thrilled and disappointed and frustrated by the stories, but . . . you know, this is what we were seeking. (The editor in me kept wanting to start editing or suggesting fixes.) There were many stories of ideas with the protagonist talking out his/her challenges and even theology. This made comparisons more difficult than we expected. “Tough calls trying to rank the short stories. It was great to see such diversity, but made it tough since some were thick with Christian propaganda and some just fun,” said one judge.
Our 2,000 word limit was a serious constraint on what could be told, but most figured out how to get their points across without loss. (Yes, 2,000 words is only about four pages, but from our vantage point, an additional 2-4 pages per story means we’re bogging down nights of the judge’s time instead of hours, so it’s a big difference.)
We relied upon three volunteer judges (I was not one of them, though I read all the entries) from around the country—two females and one male—all who read fiction, as well as enjoyed a liberal arts collegiate degree of one type or another.
The judging criteria centered on:
The winners, who scored within five points of each other, are:
Chantell Smith’s Catholicostalism (1st Place - $100)
Martha Jaynes’ Finding Faith (2nd Place - $50)
Jessica L. Simpson’s Move (3rd Place - $25)
Congratulations to our winners, but kudos to everyone who submitted. It takes a special type of bravery to expose your soul through writing and expose it to public scrutiny. Thanks for being brave even enough to do that.
We’ll be running a good variety of our submissions, as many had much to offer in intriguing writing.
Developing the Arts Assuming we keep getting sponsors (and assuming you keep supporting those sponsors by visiting their sites to see what they’re all about), we might sponsor another short story contest. We need to hear from you: Is a contest a good idea? Should we do this again? Do we have enough evidence (here) to jumpstart a movement forward in the arts?
Many of these issues are hashed over and discussed in Word every Friday, as we’re serious about encouraging writers not to settle for articles, theses, and prairie romances, but something greater, perhaps even transcendent enough to be called art. After all, the best stories should come from those full of the Master Storyteller.
ninetyandnine.com
© 2007, Kent d Curry
------- Kent d Curry is an executive editor of ninetyandnine.com, a college and career speaker, and now, a part-time literary blogger.
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