The Whistler Writing Society has announced the winner of its inaugural Summer Comeback Writing Contest, local writer and poet Kate Heskett.
Open to writers in the corridor from Lions Bay to Lillooet, the contest asked entrants to submit 250 words or less (or a video storytelling of the piece that came in under two minutes) under the theme “A Mighty Balance.”
Heskett will be reading her winning entry, a poem entitled “Black Cat,” this Thursday, July 8 at the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre as part of the reading event, Let’s Celebrate B.C. Authors, which runs from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. She will also take home a $100 cash prize, as well as two tickets to the event.
“It was a VERY difficult decision and I enjoyed reading all the submissions to the Summer Comeback contest. There were many excellent entries—it seems there is a wide variety of ways to interpret the theme ‘A Mighty Balance,’” wrote judge and author Katherine Fawcett in a release. “I loved the way this poem balanced the concepts of domestication and the wild. The hunter and the prey. The high alert and the lackadaisical. All precariously set along the narrow top of a red cedar fence. I think perhaps cats really are the epitome of balance.”
Let’s Celebrate B.C. Authors, a hybrid in-person and virtual event, will feature readings from Fawcett (The Swan Suit), Joshua Whitehead (Jonny Appleseed), Mary MacDonald (The Crooked Thing) and Sara Leach (Duck Days). Moderated by Leslie Anthony.
Tickets are $10.
Then, on July 10, the society is back with another reading event, “A Mighty Balance: Weighing Action and Words,” a conversation with five authors of non-fiction, fiction and poetry, about finding balance and what happens when the scales tip too hard in either direction. Moderated by Rebecca Wood Barrett.
Held on Zoom, the virtual reading and Q&A features writers Angie Abdou (This One Wild Life), Hassan Al Kontar (Man at the Airport: How Social Media Saved My Life), Francesca Ekwuyasi (Butter Honey Pig Bread), Bruce Kirkby (Blue Sky Kingdom: A Family Journey to the Heart of the HimalayaI), and Nisha Patel (Coconut).
Tickets are $10. Purchase yours for both events at whistlerwritersfest.com/summer-comeback-reading-series.
