Susan Fenner has a little money and a new title to put in her pocket as the second place winner of this year’s Okanagan Short Story Contest.
The Vernon writer was recognized for her story entitled Axis of Fault.
The contest attracted 141 story submissions by writers from throughout B.C.’s Southern Interior.
Axis of Fault follows the main character’s sense of guilt by association and fear when his daughter hits and kills a pedestrian in the dark.
“It is written in four parts, and each part focuses on a different twist to the truth of the situation for various combinations of the three main characters,” said Fenner, who attended the award ceremony in Kelowna March 10.
This year’s contest judge was Annabel Lyon.
The current writer in residence at UBC Okanagan, Lyon’s most recent book, The Golden Mean, won the 2009 Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and was nominated for the Giller Prize and the Governor General’s Literary Award among others.
In her comments about Fenner’s story, Lyon wrote: “This psychologically astute portrait of grief, guilt, and remorse paints its characters vividly. The author masterfully manages these intersecting emotions, and uses a shocking coincidence to throw the reader’s imagination into a future long past the last sentence.”
Lyon also read from her own work before announcing the three winning stories at last week’s event.
“At her reading in Kelowna I found her to be witty, exceptionally bright, and comfortably at ease with her material and her audience, so when she pronounced my story as second prize winner in a field of 141 entries, I felt flattered and encouraged because I only started dabbling at writing a few years ago after retiring from teaching,” said Fenner, who received $200 for her winning entry.
First place, and $500, went to Lindsay Diehl of Kelowna for her work, Basel, while third place, with a $100 prize, went to Ryan Ennis of Kelowna, for his story Hole.
Other North Okanagan residents short-listed for this year’s contest included Vernon’s Natalie Appleton, John J. Clark, Devon Muhlert, and Laura Stanek, Coldstream’s Karen Meyer, and Armstrong’s Silke Yardley.
