The Honorable Mentions
This morning I discovered the Honorable Mentions. I am off work today and had the luxury of sleeping until 8:30am. That has nothing to do with this story, though. I checked my email when I woke up and discovered that I finally heard from a literary journal that I had submitted a story to. It was a writing contest. They were weeks past the time that they were supposed to announce the winner so I had been watching for it.
Believe me, I did not expect to win, but I was hoping for an honorable mention. They choose twenty to honor and I thought my story might be at least good enough for that. I entered it in the non-fiction category and wrote creatively (I thought) in the third person. It was an extremely personal and difficult story to write and I think easier that way because it allowed me to depersonalize myself in the process.
So there was the email and list of honorable mentions and I was not on it. I was disappointed and I was very discouraged. I reached out to a friend who I had trusted to read the story to share the news. This friend decided to google a few of the names on the list. Here they are:
That there is just a sampling of the published authors, professional writers and creative writing professors who I was up against with my little story. Upon further research, I discovered that this was not a blind contest. The judges were in possession of cover letters and names.
I feel a little better. Not giving up yet.
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