I didn’t really get a chance to say what all went down over the last couple of weeks, what with work and writing stuff and punching things at the gym. But now that the big Writers’ Trust Gala is over, I figured I’ll get something on here.

Alex Pugsley won The Journey Prize for his story “Crisis on Earth-X,” published in The Dalhousie Review. I got a chance to meet Pugsley doing a short interview for The National Post, and he is a genuinely nice guy and a good writer, so I congratulate him on the win. Afterword, me and the other finalist, Andrew Hood, hung out at the pub and had a couple twenty drinks. He was a cool guy too, so there were no hard feelings nor chairs thrown. The bottom line is that the whole experience of being included in The Journey Prize Anthology, and especially being named as a finalist, gave us all a lot of opportunity to put ourselves out there and get some visibility while we all try to make a living at this fairly goddamned difficult way to make a living. I was definitely the least published and least known writer in those rooms, but almost everybody I talked to had something decent to say and they made you feel very welcome for just some guy. Writing is a pretty solitary thing for me, so when you get to see that there is actually a community out there that gives a shit it is an awful positive experience.

The highlight of the whole series of events for me was getting to meet and talk with Tamas Dobozy, who rightfully won the Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize for his short story collection “Siege 13.” If you ain’t read it yet, get it, read it, and tell somebody. That guy can write like hell. We are very different kinds of writers but we got along great and he was extraordinarily kind about my story, “To Have To Wait,” and even got into some of my other stuff that can be found online. Tamas is a prof at Laurier, and has a wife and kids and a lot on his plate, so having him take any time out of his day to put up with my crap is unbelievable, and I won’t soon forget it. I got that guy’s back forever.

Otherwise, I went home and licked my wounds (by which I mean I drank everything) after the Writers’ Trust Awards on the 7th, and then spent a good four hours that next night doing the final corrections on my second novel. I sent it to my agent, Meggie Macdonald, and she is figuring out what to do with it now. I think it’s pretty good, but we’ll see what happens. I met some publishers and shook some hands, and some of them have agreed to read the book. That’s about all you can ask for, is someone to give good work an honest reading. If there’s any weight to it someone will hopefully publish the stuff. So thanks to everyone I met for getting ready to give it a go and see if I am any good or not.

I had to suit up for the Writers’ Trust Gala on Thursday, the 15th, and got to hang out with a bunch of other “emerging” writers at the Apple iBookstore table, put together by Christopher Jackson, who had the misfortune of sitting beside me all night. He was an excellent fellow and I gotta thank him for letting me sit there and talk his ear off. All the fancy shit isn’t quite my bread and butter, but nobody threw me out or anything. I got a chance to talk to Amanda Hopkins, and the other Writers’ Trust staff and helped me out through the last couple of weeks, and who put on all of these amazing events. They bust their asses for writers, even for guys like me, and they deserve to be recognized for it. Also, Becky Toyne, Elizabeth Cameron, Anita Chong, and everybody else who was part of the process, you are all heroes. I appreciate all you do. Seriously.

That’s about all I got for now. I’m gonna get back into some short stories while I wait to get notes on the novel and fix it up for submission. I might have took about ten years off my life with all the booze and tie wearing, but I certainly feel like there was a fire lit under my ass to get to work on new writing and to plough ahead. Keep your head on a swivel. There is a lot more to come.

Anyway, thanks to my friends and family for all the support. Sorry I couldn’t take the big prize home for you guys, but I ain’t going nowhere. I feel like I’ve gone a long way in a couple of years, and we are just getting started here. So thanks again and keep on reading.

Take care everybody. Happy Saturday. I’m gonna get into a tallboy or twelve and watch the fights. Also, young’uns at work have convinced me to get Twitter going again. And I guess I’ll see what I can do before I get booted from the internet. So here you go. Prepare for pure nonsense.

Cheers,

Hardcastle

https://twitter.com/KHardcase

Here’s another piece from The National Post that came out today. I’m not sure if it is in the print edition of the paper, but you can read it here anyway:

The Writers’ Trust Conversations: Kevin Hardcastle and Tamas Dobozy

Big thanks to Becky Toyne for setting this one up as well, and to Elizabeth Cameron for coordinating the whole thing. Of course, there was a much larger conversation around the published Q & A, and it was an honour for an up and comer like me to have a chance to speak to a short story master like Tamas Dobozy, who is up for the Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize this evening. I am very grateful to him for taking the time to read my rants, and for ranting back some.

Hopefully you enjoy this little bit of press leading up to actual handing out of the Journey Prize this evening. On that note, I am off to get mildly fancified and probably drink a beer or six to simmer down. Win or lose I got a huge leg up from having “To have to wait“ chosen for The Journey Prize Stories, and especially from being named as a finalist. Good luck to all of the nominees, for all of the Writers’ Trust awards. Whatever happens, it’s out of my hands now and I’ll be hitting the open bar hard either way, so there’s that…

See you on the other side. Thanks for all the support. KH.

Here is the link to a joint interview that me and fellow Journey Prize finalist Alex Pugsley did a couple of weeks back. The conversation was with Armina Ligaya for the National Post.

“We’ve already crossed the finish line a couple times” – National Post/Arts/Afterword

I am not sure what happened to my head right before the photo here, but there it is. Armina had a bit of a tall order in this interview, as it was supposed to be about Toronto-centric writing stuff, and the scene in and around Parkdale. Of course, most of my writing involves hillbilly violence and I’ve not written anything about Parkdale yet, and I also know exactly zero other writers in this town. Either way, I haven’t done a writing related interview since I was about ten years old, so it was an interesting experience, and I want to thank Armina for her time, and also Becky Toyne for setting it all up.

There will be another article in the National Post this week with me and Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize/Governor General’s Award finalist Tamas Dobozy. I’ll post that as soon as it shows up.

Upon learning that ‘To Have To Wait‘ had been chosen for the Journey Prize Stories 24, The Malahat Review (who published this story back in January) asked me to answer some interview questions for them. They set me up with Linda Rogers, an acclaimed poet and member of Malahat’s advisory board, who sent me some excellent questions to reply to by rant and rave. So I did.

The interview is now up on Malahat’s website, and you can find it by clicking the hell out of this whole line that you just read.

It is a fairly lengthy conversation. But I think Linda asked some very fine questions and that those questions deserved real answers. So I tried my best to give some. Regardless, give it a read and see what you think.

Soon I’ll have some other news related to novel completion and wearing a tie to see if I can drum up a career, and I’ll keep you posted on that. But for now you should check out the interview. Thanks to Linda Rogers and The Malahat Review for all of the support. I won’t forget it:

http://web.uvic.ca/malahat/interviews/hardcastlejpinterview.html

Today I was named as one of the three finalists for the 2012 Journey Prize, for the short story ‘To Have To Wait,’ which originally appeared in The Malahat Review early this year. The image above is a screenshot from the Writers’ Trust of Canada website, and it likely proves that I did not hallucinate the whole thing as part of a whiskey fuelled fever-dream.

I’ve had a lot of congratulations today and I’ve said a bunch of thank you’s, but I want to thank everybody again for supporting my work. Some very good writers are in The Journey Prizes Stories 24, all of whom are a fair amount more reputable than I am. Nonetheless, The Malahat Review gave my story a shot and Michael Christie, Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer, and Kathleen Winter got what I was trying to do and chose the story for the top three.

Now I have to go to some a fancy dinner and some kind of gala to see if I can win the whole thing. I might even have to dress up, shave, wears shoes, and so on. I also have to find a picture of my head that isn’t utterly ridiculous so that the Writers’ Trust can put it up on their webpage. None of those are particularly bad problems to have.

Anyway, that is the news from today. The winner won’t be announced until November 7th, so, in the meantime, you should go out and grab a copy of The Journey Prize Stories 24, and read all of the writers in there, not just the buggers who made it through to the finals. I’m not gonna lie to you though, if you read my story the most I will throw you a high five.

I will keep you posted if anything else happens, and I will have an update on my latest novel soon as well. Until then, take care, thanks from deep in my surly guts for all of your support.

Here are a couple of items from today’s newscycle about the announcement, as well as the announcement of the shortlist for Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction prize, which you gotta scroll past to get to the Hardcastle:

CBC

Quill and Quire

National Post

The Toronto Star

NOW Magazine

The 24th edition of The Journey Prize Stories will be released today, and includes my story ‘To Have To Wait,’ which was originally published back in January by The Malahat Review.

All of the thirteen stories in the anthology are in contention for The Journey Prize, a $10,000 award meant to identify the very best emerging writers in Canada. The prize is made possible by James A. Michener’s generous donation of all Canadian royalties from his novel Journey. On Wednesday morning The Writers’ Trust of Canada will be announcing the finalists for the prize, and the eventual winner will be announced on November 7th.

Along with the stories, you will also find a very interesting introduction by the jury with some insight into the selection process, and some kind words about each story that was chosen. Also, some of the authors in the anthology show up in a questionnaire at the end, sharing their ideas on how not to entirely eat shit as an emerging writer. There is some pretty good stuff in there.

You can buy this sucker online through Amazon, Indigo, or directly from McClelland & Stewart, who graciously runs the competition and publishes the anthology. There are some fine stories amongst those pages, by some very good up and coming writers. But I hear that this particular collection of tales gets especially awesome from page eighteen to page thirty-six…

Thanks go out to the The Malahat Review for giving ‘To Have to Wait’ a shot (John Barton, Julie Paul, Rhonda Batchelor, Susan Sanford Blades, etc.), and to Anita Chong and the rest of the staff at McClelland & Stewart, as well as the jury who chose the stories in the anthology: Michael Christie, Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer, and Kathleen Winter. Special thanks to all the folks I’ve met along the way who have read, edited, or otherwise supported my work, namely Leah Chamberlain, Lindsay Clarke, A.F. Moritz, and Cort McMeel.

I’m in the final stages of revision on my second novel, which I hope to have out to my agent, Meghan Macdonald, by early October. Win or lose, it is a big deal to be included in The Journey Prize Stories anthology, and perhaps it will help get one of these novels sold. No matter what happens, I will keep putting in work, and you’ll probably see a bunch more of it out there over the next couple of years.

Keep your ears to the ground. I’ll post more as it comes…

Earlier this week it was announced that ‘To Have to Wait,’ a short story of mine that appeared in The Malahat Review‘s Winter 2011 issue, will be included in this year’s Journey Prize Stories anthology, and will be a contender for the $10,000 Journey Prize a little further down the road. Here is some information on the prize from the McClelland & Stewart website:

*

The $10,000 Journey Prize, now known as The Writers’ Trust of Canada/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize, is awarded annually to an emerging and developing writer of distinction for a short story published in a Canadian literary publication. This award is made possible by James A. Michener’s generous donation of his Canadian royalties earnings from his novel Journey, published by McClelland & Stewart in 1988. The Journey Prize itself is the most significant monetary award given in Canada to a developing writer for a short story or excerpt from a fiction work-in-progress.

The winner of the Journey Prize is selected from among the stories that appear in the current volume of The Journey Prize Stories, published annually in the fall by McClelland & Stewart.

For over a decade The Journey Prize Stories has established itself as one of the most prestigious anthologies in the country, introducing readers to the finest emerging Canadian writers from coast to coast. It has become a who’s who of up-and-coming writers, and many of the authors whose early work has appeared in the anthology have gone on to distinguish themselves with acclaimed collections of stories or novels, and have won many of Canada’s most prestigious literary awards, including the Governor General’s Award, the Trillium Award, the Chapters/Books in Canada First Novel Award, and The Giller Prize.

*

Previous winners of The Journey Prize include Yann Martel, Alissa York, Jessica Grant, Yasuko Thanh, and Timothy Taylor. Other writers that have appeared in the anthology are: David Bergen, Michael Christie, Michael Crummey, Craig Davidson, Emma Donoghue, Charlotte Gill, Elizabeth Hay, Steven Heighton, Lee Henderson, Annabel Lyon, Pasha Malla, Alexander MacLeod, Lisa Moore, Heather O’Neill, Rebecca Rosenblum, Sarah Selecky, Madeleine Thien, and M.G. Vassanji.

All in all the Journey Prize, and inclusion in the Journey Prize Stories anthology, is regarded as a sort of holy grail for emerging writers in Canada. It’s an honour just to be included in the anthology, and I’m not gonna lie to you, if I won it I’d probably drink a beer or twenty.

I have to thank The Malahat Review for publishing ‘To Have to Wait,’  the staff at McClelland & Stewart and The Writers’ Trust of Canada, who run the Journey Prize, the jury that selected the story (Michael Christie, Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer, and Kathleen Winter), and my agent Meggie Macdonald at Transatlantic Literary Agency, who has championed my work for nearly two years and is working hard to get a novel sold. I also want to thank Leah Chamberlain for editing my work before any journal editor or publisher laid eyes on it, and Cort McMeel, who published an excerpt from my near-finished second novel in Noir Nation, and who continuously supports my work with profanity laced emails and calls for literary revolution.

Below is the link to the facebook page for The Journey Prize, where they are announcing each one of the included stories on a regular basis. Keep an eye out for further updates, and maybe go ahead and ‘like’ the announcement of ‘To Have to Wait.’ Thanks to everyone for their support.

http://www.facebook.com/TheJourneyPrize

This week issue 177 of The Malahat Review should be available at various bookstores, including Chapters/Indigo, Book City, and some university or academic booksellers. A story I wrote called ‘To Have to Wait’ shows up on page 29. The Malahat Review has long been regarded as one of the best literary journals in Canada, and has published writers like Yann Martel, Michael Ondaatje and Margaret Atwood. Not to say that I have all that much in common with any of those writers, especially my arch-nemesis Atwood, but it gives you an idea of the kind of Canlit heavyweights that Malahat has published over the years.

Thanks go out to Julie Paul and John Barton, who edited my story and did one hell of a job. They were real professionals throughout the whole process, and made it about as good of an editorial experience as could be. Also thanks to all the people who work on the production of the journal. If you get your hands on it you will see the quality of the final product.

Finally, I want to mention that the folks at The Malahat Review also put ‘To Have to Wait’ forward as a fiction submission to the National Magazine Awards, and the Journey Prize. I won’t know if I’m selected as an actual nomination for the NMA’s until May, and the Journey Prize doesn’t announce the winning stories for their anthology until November. But getting a nod for either one would probably help me get a novel sold, so cross your fingers and all kinds of other stuff while I wait to hear back. Big thanks to Rhonda Batchelor and John Barton at Malahat for giving me a shot at those prizes.

So yeah, see if you can’t get a copy and check out the story. I appreciate the support.

Take a gander at the preview for the upcoming issue of The Malahat Review. A story of mine called ‘To have to wait’ will be in there, and it gets a couple of mentions in Malahat Lite, a virtual newsletter for The Malahat Review. There is an introduction to the story up top on page 1, and some information about the theme of the issue. Also, the member of Malahat’s fiction board that worked with me on the story, Julie Paul, gives me some props during an interview in the newsletter. You can find that at the bottom of section 4 of the PDF.

Check it out by clicking the link below:

Malahat lite
Virtual Newsletter of The Malahat Review

The Malahat Review – Issue 177 drops on January 21st, 2012. It is probably the best literary journal in Canada, so give it a whirl if like literary fiction or just Hardcastle literary fiction.

This is just one of a half-dozen Amazon reviews for Noir Nation Issue No. 1. There are a bunch of good writers in that journal, and I appreciate getting a mention here:

“…Then there’s Kevin Hardcastle’s first sentence in “Work” – In the dark and pisswet alleyway Daniel stood under one meager light. – Damn! Hardcastle keeps it going all the way through, edgy and beautiful, no waste…”

Click the sentence above for the full review, and check out the other reviews on Amazon by hitting the Noir Nation link at the upper right of the page. Maybe even buy the thing. It helps support writers of my ilk. Thanks.