By Don Urquhart, Times Chronicle
It’s Winter Again in Osoyoos. This is of course the name of the annual Osoyoos Writing Contest and not a statement of the obvious.
Building on last year’s inaugural success of Osoyoos’ first (in recent memory at least) writing competition, this year’s event is bigger and better with double the number of entries and a third more participating businesses.
Likely a combination of greater awareness combined with more writers emboldened to come out of the woodwork, say the organizers. It was essentially an experiment last year by the two organizers – Lindsay Bayford of the Happy Paper Parlor and Dan Williams of Wayside Select Books & Art.
But this year seems to confirm there are a lot more writers out there than has been apparent in this area of artistic abundance that is perhaps better known for its more visually oriented creative endeavours.
Any topic was fair game (not simply limited to the toils and tribulations of winter in Osoyoos) with the only stipulations being that each piece of writing had to be one page in length and be unpublished.
The Happy Paper Parlor proprietor Lindsay Bayford holds up three of the writing contest stories at last year’s competition. Don Urquhart photo
A full 30 writers digitally penned their creative short stories and poems this year and each is randomly displayed at one participating business around town.
The three-fold aim is the same as last year: a means to get local writers writing; providing something for both tourists and locals to do in the winter; and hopefully get some more foot traffic into the participating businesses.
The number of businesses taking part has also increased by nearly a third with a total of 29 stretching from Double O Bikes at the top end of Main St. down to MIKS Food Studio at the lower end.
While prizes will go to the top three writers as judged by readers and the organizers, those who submit their judge’s form by Tuesday, April 2 will be entered into a draw for $25 gift certificates from both Wayside and Happy Paper.
The writing will be on display from Feb. 23 to Mar. 30 with contest winners announced on Apr. 5. The participating businesses, contestants and of course winners, will be celebrated at an event at Wayside on Apr. 12.
Judging forms and maps are available at any of the participating businesses including Wayside Select Books & Art, 8317 Main St. and The Happy Paper Parlor at 7602 85th St. both in Osoyoos.
