Writing Royale

The Writing Royale is Fairfield Prep’s annual creative writing contest, open to short stories of no more than fifteen hundred words. This year’s contest collected more than a dozen submissions representing members of all four classes at Prep. Stories were submitted anonymously and read by a panel of English faculty, who nominated a list of five finalists; these were forwarded to this year’s guest judge, Dr. Christopher Dowd, who selected the winning entry.

Chris Dowd is a Professor and Chair of the English Department at the University of New Haven. He received his B.A. in English from Fairfield University, his M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Emerson College, and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut. He is the author of The Construction of Irish Identity in American Literature and The Irish and the Origins of American Popular Culture. His creative writing has appeared in several print and online journals.

Congratulations to this year’s winner, Ben Lester, and all the finalists. After reading all the stories, Dr. Dowd offered the following words of praise for each student’s work:

James Callaghan’s “The One That Scampered Away” is a story about memory, legacy, and absence left by an inexplicable theft. The author takes one moment in time and stretches it into a highly charged story of introspection and speculation. It is a deeply atmospheric story. As the narrator tries to make meaning from this moment in time, readers are invited to contemplate the impermanence of landmarks in relation to the permanence of memory. The author succeeds in dramatizing the interior conflict of the moment in a very visual manner.

Christopher Cope’s “Excerpts from the Diary of John Kohler” offers an unsettling view into the mind of a disturbed young man. The fragmented journal highlights a descent into self-destruction and delusion. The author has crafted a character prone to introspection and capable of selfawareness, but not ready to recognize or halt his own patterns of destructive behavior. The story presents an excellent character portrait that slides, as readers start to recognize, towards an inevitable and tragic end. The author demonstrates real aptitude for making such a character very sympathetic.

Alex Salazar’s “The Locksmith’s Chance” is a story in which the tension of the action is embodied in the task the main character must perform. The small and complicated manipulation of the antique lock is fraught with difficulty, and his tools are fragile. This story builds suspense and rests it all upon the locksmith’s success and skill. The author shows skill at pacing and balancing description with action.

Tim Wong’s “Too Fast; Too Close” reaches back to memories of childhood and forward to thoughts of possibility, all framed in a decisive and potentially destructive moment. The discordance of the memories of the river from childhood and its current appearance are striking and jar the reader along with the protagonist out of the moment. The prose is wonderfully disorienting, capturing the feeling of the character. The author crafts deeply engaging descriptive sentences and uses memory to build a character very effectively.

Winner: Ben Lester, “Heartstrings”

The death of Antonio’s wife and his grief over her loss frame this story. What is remarkable is the way that the author builds the absence of the wife layer by layer. There is the lack of sound, where once there was music. There is the emptiness of the mansion. There is the disconnect between Antonio and the public who adored his wife. There is the building sense of purposelessness. Antonio’s anguish and his need for solace are palpable, and his quiet acceptance of relief when it comes is moving. The author’s exploration of grief and absence are remarkably mature and developed.