I’ve gone to the Willamette Writer’s Conference both as a participant and as a presenter for many years. More than a dozen years ago, before I had my first book contract I won a Kay Snow Award. At that conference I met the amazing and generous Kirby Larson, who had only one published book at that point and was a decade away from her Newbery Honor win for Hattie Big Sky.
Well all these years later I decided to enter the Kay Snow contest again with a story called The Last of the Name. It’s a tale dear to my heart about Irish immigration during the Civil War era. What a thrill to once again receive a 3rd place honor. I’m very much looking forward to once again spending time August 4th and 5th with my wonderful Portland writing community. I think there is still time to sign up workshops and pitching sessions with agents, film agents, and editors. Hope to see you there!
Congratulations on your placing 3rd in such a prominent contest. You’ve done such great work in writing historical fiction (I’m a big fan of Written In Stone)…. I am sure your story of Irish immigrants arriving during the Civil War era is top notch and exciting. You mentioned placing in this contest previously. How many short stories have you written Ms. Parry…. and are they ever going to be placed in a collection for publication or posted on your website? Keep up the talented and entertaining work.
Thank you Arjay! I do love short stories and I write them when ever I can. I hadn’t thought about putting together a collection of them in part because several of my short stories have grown into novels over time. That was true with Heart of a Shepherd and may turn out to be true of this story as well. Part of the fun of short story writing is letting them gel a little after the initial writing to see if there’s more story hiding inside.