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2008 POSTCARD STORY WINNERS

First Prize

Big Skirt

Iris Wilde

I grew up under my mother’s skirt. Light filtered through climbing roses and morning glory. There was room for a child’s table and two chairs. When my friends came, we drank tea and ate finger sandwiches. Mom didn’t like cops and robbers. Too many bruises on her shins.

Second Prizes

Arrangements

Marial Shea

Cornell hates alcohol of all descriptions. “I almost died of the drink,” he says. In fact, he brings it up far too often, if you ask me. A thing like that need be mentioned only occasionally, if at all. Cornell goes to the aa. I see no call for that sort of thing myself. I find it showy.

Portrait of the Winning Team

Jane Webster

That wedding got a little out of hand. I was sixteen and my father was anxious to see me married off because I had four younger sisters. The Great War was in full swing and there were only a handful of men left in the village. Arno, my betrothed, had been sent home from the Front because of a nervous condition.

Third Prizes

Missing

Paulette Bourgeois

I killed a cat on the way to work. It darted under a fence and I felt a thud against my right rear tire. I stopped the car. In the rear­view mirror I saw blood shooting from its mouth in a thin red arc. The cat twitched for a long time. I got out of the car and covered it with the blanket we keep in the trunk.

To Do Today

Gail Buente

1. Go to bank.
2. Pick up bus tickets.
3. Find my sunglasses.

Honourable Mentions

Hello from the Hammer

Taylor Wilson

Hiss

Christine Lauter

Machisma

Mary Walters

2007 POSTCARD STORY WINNERS

First Prize

Six Deaths

Shayna Krishnasamy

The first time it happened he was in Sydney, on the beach, at the tail end of a hazy backpacking trip. A surfer he’d just met crashed into a massive wave and never came up again. It was all over in a blink. »»

Second Prizes

A Spot to Remember

Adrian John Burrus

Dad pulls our station wagon into the Monroe Hotel parking lot because he has to vomit. Mr. Brigman’s thick black glasses slide down his nose when he hands us the key. »»

Hardly At All

Ross Bragg

I drank a litre of rye the morning you left and had my stomach pumped in Gravenhurst. The bastard who owned the jet ski found me, he saved my life. But I am better now and have a sleepy eye. »»

Third Prizes

How to Enter the Ocean

Rachel Knudsen

Last summer I fell in love with a lifeguard. He said, You can tell everything about a person by how they enter the ocean, so we sat all afternoon and watched fat mothers standing on the hot sand, boys playing water wars, couples strolling along the edge. »»

Hotheaded

Stephen Smith

We put out a big fire and surprised ourselves at the same time. We weren’t professional firefighters, none of us was, just strangers happening by who saw the fire and took care of it. None of us even liked fires. »»

A Long Line

Deirdre Laidlaw

On Sunday evening we pulled into town after four nights on the road. Four nights of snow and rain and eighteen-wheelers sucking us right off the highway every time they passed, and now here we were in Selkirk, Manitoba, with that big fish leering down at us. »»

Honourable Mentions

Kissie Kiss

Karyn Eisler

Sure there was kissie kiss. But he didn’t like her style. “Rough edges,” he said, although he never used the term. »»

Like Ants on a Kicked-Down Anthill

Irene Livingston

Maisie wears this long blond wig and shiny green polyester pantsuit that shows off her famous ass. »»

The End

Shelagh Plunkett

When Jim God-Be-Here and Hazel Buzza were both about seventy-three years old they got married. »»

Lost and Found

Bob Thurber

I lost my pretty mother in a toy store. Entirely my fault. »»

Artificial Body Parts

Jodi Stone

The injury I got when I was eighteen turned Mother and me into twins. »»

Animal Planet

Rose Hunter

My boyfriend, L, he’s got this doorstopper Smithsonian or Audubon field guide or something, to every animal, it seems, that exists in the world. »»

B.C. Interior

Veronica Gaylie

Wal-Mart reindeer glitter in the window of the old-age home, a woman in a red sweater holds a red pillow and weeps in front of a fake Christmas tree. »»

Close Encounter with a Cowboy

Shaun Hunter

Weeks before Stampede, I come upon a cowboy walking in the park. Even though he’s left his Stetson in the car, I know he’s a real cowboy. »»

Last Christmas

Dana Carlson

On the afternoon of December 24 my parents arrived an hour earlier than expected and I was still in my sweatpants. »»

Ice Cream

Salvatore Difalco

Cold? No. I only shivered after I ate the double scoop of vanilla you forced on me. »»

Fruit of the Womb

Joanne Bealy

Oh for Christ’s sake. I turn my back for a minute. A god damned minute and they’ve set the bloody tree on fire. »»

Such an Elegant Couple

Tanya Hagen

That was the worst year, when you fractured your spine and I quit smoking and my thesis, in which order I can’t remember. »»

For Miles Around

Thomas Sweetland

Preserves of sardines, canned pears. A book, special order, on the History of human flight in the Americas. Salt. »»