Vancouver Island Mayworks will hold its second Writing on Work contest and if you work and you write, you should enter.
Last year's event was quite successful with three judges struggling to get the 30-plus entries down to the six shortlisted. A full house heard the six works, then voted local writer and North Island College instructor Derek Hanebury's Worm Pickers Confession as their favourite work.
All six entries were published in a handsome chapbook that people snapped up.
The subject matter is work, any kind of work. With the Pacific Northwest Labour History Association conference happening in Cumberland from June 12 to 15, Mayworks is especially looking for pieces on B.C. labour history.
It could be a poem about Joe Naylor; a profile of your mother's work in a cannery or a short story about your time spent treeplanting.
However it is not limited to those subjects, the sky's the limit. It could be about hard physical work, or it could be about the thrill of sitting at a desk all day, or even about a futuristic workplace, or about the beauty and pain of work, as long as:
• It is a maximum of 2,500 words;
• It can be fiction, prose or poetry, or non-fiction;
• It has not been previously published.
The six writers or poets who are finalists will have an opportunity to read their work at a public reading May 22 at Zocalo Café in Courtenay. The audience will, by secret ballot, select their favourite piece.
Prizes are $300 for first place, $200 for second and $100 for third. In addition, all shortlisted works will be published in a chapbook available at the May 22 reading.
The deadline for submission of entries is April 18. Mail them to 480 Second St. in Courtenay, B.C. V9N 1C1 or e-mail to bcharlton@shaw.ca. The shortlist will be announced May 2.
The reading will be at Zocalo on Thursday evening, May 22. You do not have to be present at the reading to submit your work. The work will remain your property except for inclusion in the chapbook.
For any other questions, contact Mayworks at bcharlton@shaw.ca.
For other Mayworks events, check out the Facebook page.
— Mayworks