As of this week, I’ve been told by the the Journey Prize folks that we are able to let out some secret news from earlier in the year. My story “Old Man Marchuk,” published by EVENT in January, has been included in Journey Prize Stories 26, and will be published as part of that anthology in early October.
I know a few other writers that are in this year’s anthology, like Andrew MacDonald, and the notorious Amy Jones. The folks at McClelland & Stewart are going to announce each author on their Journey Prize facebook page over the next few weeks. In fact, they’ve already started. If the other authors involved are as strong as those I know about, we are probably looking at one hell of a book come October.
That is all a result of the fine judges that took part this year: Saleema Nawaz, Steven W. Beattie, and Craig Davidson, and the pile o’ stories they had to read through. Massive thanks to all of them for their time and effort in selecting the anthology entries. Also, I think special attention should be given to the journals that read, published, and nominated this group of JP stories. I gotta thank EVENT for putting this one out there, and for nominating it secretly for a few different prizes (more to come later on that). But I’d also like to holler at The Puritan, who published a story of mine called Bandits early in 2013, and nominated it for the 2014 Journey Prize as well. That story was one of the first to help me gain some traction over the last couple years, and the community of writers/editors/readers that make up The Puritan have always been great at promoting that story. Go read their journal now and continue to read it until your corneas ache.
The three finalists for the Journey Prize will be announced on October 1st. So keep an eye out for that. And the anthology will be in bookstores that do not suck as of October 7th. You can also pre-order it here through the McClelland & Stewart site. In the meantime, like the Journey Prize fb page, and follow the Writers’ Trust on twitter for updates on all of the writers included this year, and for important announcements leading up to the big show that is the Writers’ Trust Awards on November 4th, where the Journey Prize winner will be announced, as will other WT prize winners.
The next bit of news for “Old Man Marchuk” is that this old bugger is also a finalist for a Western Magazine Award in the Fiction category. I found this out earlier in the month in the usual way, by a bunch of people messaging me things I didn’t understand. Another sneaky move by EVENT that I greatly appreciate. The journals that submit to the WMAs are some of the best in the country, so I’m in tough with some other good writers in my category. Though, I dodged that Trevor Corkum guy, who has a story in the finals of the Human Experience or Creative Non-Fiction type category. That narrowly stopped some kind of short story highlander scenario, is my guess.
The winners will be announced on September 26th at a fancy gala in Vancouver, where I don’t think I’m allowed at nor have the suitable shoes or boxcar ridin’ capabilities to put in an appearance. Either way, look out for that one also. Follow the Western Magazine Award Foundation twitter page for more updates. Thanks again to EVENT for the nomination. This story has managed to get a lot of mileage and whatever happens it ain’t done yet. It’ll also show up in the next edition of Best Canadian Stories sometime in the near future.
That’s it for now. Some other secret doings coming up, as I said and got heckled for in the last post. I should have something to tell you about that in September. Until then, thanks for reading all my shit, and for spreading the word about Hardcastle stories and other rantings.
Cheers,
KH
Kevin Hardcastle 