Books
2007 Short Fiction and Poetry Contest
Intro by Jon Anne Willow It’s possible that only a writer can understand the difficulty of being one. It is not a skill or avocation, but the most primal of callings, an obsession at least as deep-rooted as any felt for love or high ambition. Writing is a cruel muse, leaving you when you need her most, clawing at your back when your thoughts should be turned to other things. Follow her and you may, through a tortuous process, eventually taste the manna of creating something that isn’t truly awful; turn your back and you will surely be left in peace to wade eternally in the tide pool of regret that you did not listen when you had the chance. Just the act of writing consistently takes courage; to actually put your words out there for others, even more: any “writer” who does not know this is either a rank amateur or an imposter. With this belief, VITAL would like to extend our gratitude to everyone who submitted their work to our first Short Fiction and Poetry Contest. Their work was judged blind by talented working professionals who all used the same criteria to score each piece up to 100 total points in different categories. Both first and second place winners in each category are printed here; first place winners will also receive a $50 gift card to Barnes and Noble, whose Mayfair store helped to sponsor this competition. Enjoy. —Jon Anne Willow FICTION WINNER “Confitero” By Anne M. Rice Like savoring a last cigarette before the executioner’s blindfold, I hold the gold cufflink between my fingers, tracing the engraved initials repeatedly with my thumb. The arc of my fingernail revisits the path of the engraver’s pen in lines and curves. Whether I do this to scratch the initials out of existence or because I feel them branding my being, I do not know. I stand motionless – except for this tiny, recurring gesture – in the middle of the bedroom, staring out the leaded glass windows, for what might be hours. Again, I do not know. Time seems almost intractable. Below, the light is reflected on the wet pavement where milky shafts glare up at me. He was in a desperate hurry to leave this evening, choosing to wear the lapis pair – barely securing his French cuffs, grabbing his suit jacket, knocking this offending monogrammed piece onto the Oriental rug near my toe as he flew past, the scent of Kiel’s almond lotion lingering behind him. “Don’t wait up,” he offered, not unkindly, but unnecessarily. I know better than to do that. These evenings have become a part of our routine, even if they are a charade. And I am very clear about how to carry out my role. Early on in this arrangement, I would boast of a busy schedule and a vibrant, separate social life that also kept me out on evenings such as these. And occasionally, I indeed had penciled things in on nights like […]
Aug 1st, 2007 by Vital Archives
Hot summer in the city
Lesley Kagen is looking out the front window of Restaurant Hama, the fine Japanese establishment her and husband Peter Knapp have operated out of the Audubon Court in Bayside for almost 10 years. But this is not a feature about the fine tempura and fried calamari we will feast on in a few minutes. “Piaskowski,” Kagen interjects with another local family name. Her voice is comforting and level as she continues to identify familiar Brew City names and places. It’s a voice perfect for radio commercials – which Kagen did on the west coast for over a decade. But this is not a feature about past successes in television and voiceover work. “I mean, this is definitely a Milwaukee book,” Kagen continues, and then wrinkles her brow within the context. The Vliet Street characters in her debut novel Whistling in the Dark, published by North American Library (Penguin Books), have remarkable depth. The languid summer of 1959 passes by typically with Popsicles, movies and neighborhood games. But this is not a book about how whimsical, simple and tranquil those times were. “A lot of people like to remember the ‘50s, and say ‘oh wow the ‘50s, it was so innocent.’ But in some ways it wasn’t, especially for girls,” Kagen says. “Girls were treated very differently back then. You were a 2nd-class citizen. Boys were important and girls weren’t. And that led to some situations that were not nice and not healthy.” The main heroine of Whistling is 10-year-old Sally O’Malley, a fiercely loyal and smart girl who becomes an unwilling shamus during one summer dotted with personal tragedy and frustration. After promising her dad before he died to always look after her younger sister, Troo, Sally’s world is thrown asunder when her mother is hospitalized, her stepfather turns to the bottle and a murderer/molester appears on the scene. Highly imaginative, Sally is pretty sure of two things: who the killer is and that she’s next on his list. Now she has no choice but to protect herself and Troo as best she can, relying on her own courage and the kindness of her neighbors. For all the dark corners and mysteries in Kagen’s seeming thriller, however, she was stunned during the many accolades the novel received when the Mystery Guild named it an alternate for book-of-the-month. “I thought why? I would say that it’s a literary novel with an element of mystery as opposed to a true genre mystery. I don’t think it has that feel to it at all,” says Kagen. “I don’t think that Sally is thinking about solving the crime. She’s more concerned with getting the information for keeping her and her sister safe. That’s a real different goal.” Another neat trick that binds the book is the committed narrative voice, which is written in the first person from Sally’s perspective and vernacular ability. “I wanted people to remember that children are different than adults,” she says. “They see things differently. The strange ways that words […]
Jun 1st, 2007 by Brian Jacobson
