Wind and Water

County Arts Council’s fourth annual writing contest

The theme of this year’s Prince Edward County Arts Council’s Wind and Water writing contest is “Transformation”, and given the tenor of the times it is eminently suitable. The contest is open to all residents of Prince Edward County and the Quinte region, and the submissions can be poetry or in the combined category of fiction or non-fiction. Submissions will be accepted until March 31, 2022. The contest will be judged by Kelly S. Thompson, who created the contest while she was a board member with the Prince Edward County Arts Council (PECAC). Thompson spent 10 years in the Canadian military until she was released from duty for medical reasons. She was posted to Trenton in 2014 and was looking for ways to reconnect with the arts community when she was invited to join the PECAC board. She is a published author, and her memoir Girls Need Not Apply: Field Notes from the Forces was on the Globe and Mail bestseller list. She recently completed a doctorate in creative writing, and teaches at King’s College in Halifax. As a member of the County arts community, she saw an opportunity to showcase the local writing talent, and so the Wind and Water writing contest was born. “I wanted to find a way to create some programming that would involve writers. There was a big focus on the visual arts, on textile and fibre art, but not a lot of programming for writers, so I thought, ‘What about a writing contest?’ I would judge it, and I donated the first year’s prize, and it’s just kept going,” she says. She chose the name Wind and Water for the contest because those are two of the things the County is known for, and each year she chooses a different theme.

Gabriele Cole, seen here at a book launch at Books & Company, was the winner in the non-fiction category of Wind and Water writing contest in 2019.

Thompson says that the number of submissions continues to grow each year and despite the pandemic, last year was no exception given that there was a necessarily reduced amount of promotion for the contest. “I keep seeing this increasing number of people who are submitting, but I also get to see the more globalizing talent that keeps coming to the area. It’s really good to see the arts community grow in that area. The breadth and depth of the talent we have here, and in all different age ranges, has been really wonderful,” she says. There were about 50 entries last year, almost equally divided between poetry and prose. She says that the key aspect for her as a judge is whether the writer uses all the tools that are available to them as an author. “We’ve seen everything from young-adult fantasy pieces to a really literary style. Are the writers using dialogue and imagery and characterization? You don’t necessarily have to have some wild, exciting plot; it doesn’t have to be a big, fulsome story. Sometimes it’s enough to show a really beautiful moment between characters.”

Gabriele Cole won the non-fiction category of the contest in 2019 for her story Life Changing Events That Never Happen. She has a background in art history and curatorial studies and returned home to the County that year with the intent to concentrate on writing. The timing of the contest was just right, and she was inspired by that year’s theme.

She also found a note that she had written when she was eight or nine years old that said she wanted to become a writer when she grew up. She said that it took several weeks for her to write her story. “I spent quite a lot of time at the Bean Counter—I think I do my best writing in coffee shops, which is probably why I haven’t written anything in a while. This took a few weeks and I did a lot of editing, moving things around. This wasn’t something that was right off the cuff, even though the story itself was important to me. It was wonderful to win. This was the first contest I had entered, and it was my hometown, and then I got to read the story at the Armoury to a group of people.” While she hasn’t fully made up her mind yet, she is strongly considering entering this year’s contest because the theme of Transformation really appeals to her.

Thompson encourages anyone to enter the contest. “You never know until you try. I had a piece that I’d shopped around for six years, and now it’s long-listed in a CBC contest. All of a sudden it’s on this list that I’ve dreamed of for my entire career. A writer’s life is a life of rejection, sadly, but it’s also a life of community. Whether or not you think you have the talent, or whether or not you think your writing is ready, it’s just such a nice way of testing that. People have been very surprised sometimes. They’ve never submitted anything to a contest, and then they’re making the shortlist, and that’s how writers build their credentials—by starting to enter in these smaller contests. The scariest thing you’ll do is take that leap and put your writing out to the world. If there is a part of your heart that calls you to write, then you should do it and the audience will find you. You can have fun, and this can be a space for play. We’re all looking for a bit of connection now and I’m really hoping people will cast caution to the winds and put their writing out there. It’s the scariest part, but it can also be the most rewarding.”

For details on how to enter the contest, and links to previous winning entries, please visit countyarts.ca/wind-water-writing-contest.