The Journey Prize Stories 25 (2 page)

“Some writers are blessed with an innate, bulletproof confidence, coupled with the sturdy conviction that what they write matters. But for the rest of us, doubt and insecurity are the acid bath in which our literary ambitions are born. And there is nothing like a Journey Prize nomination to prop up a nascent writer’s fragile hopes. Like the little boy’s love for the Velveteen Rabbit, the affections of the Journey Prize eased my
transition from ‘Who are you kidding with this writing stuff?’ to ‘Maybe you should write more of these things.’ And the truly wonderful thing is, I know I’m not alone.”

– Michael Christie

“Being a part of the anthology was something of a landmark in my own progression as a writer. I’d read previous editions, and to be a part of it myself was a great surprise. It provided me with some confidence, a commodity highly prized by writers, especially when you’re just starting out.”

– Craig Davidson

“Many years ago, a kind relative who knew I had literary aspirations gave me a copy of the
Journey Prize
anthology. It was bright red and contained stories by new Canadian writers. Would I ever be one of those? So far I was just Canadian. A decade later I got a phone call that changed my life. Are you sitting down? I was living in a tiny apartment in Calgary and I had one chair. I was so excited I couldn’t find my one chair. Wait, wait! I sat down on the floor. I had won the Journey Prize! How did I feel? Like a superhero. Very proud. Very grateful. And completely cured of my worst fear – that I wouldn’t be a writer.”

– Jessica Grant

“What a thrill! A ‘yes’ instead of a ‘no.’ I had done something right, and now I would have to figure out what it was.”

– Elizabeth Hay

“I remember feeling ratified, authenticated, which of course was an illusion; no journal or anthology or prize ever proves you are a real writer (whatever that is). But being chosen for
an anthology as important as
The Journey Prize Stories
gave me a lift when I especially needed one, and I still think of that with gratitude.”

– Steven Heighton

“Winning the Journey Prize was the largest, and most public acknowledgement my work had received. But more than the money, or remembering the moment my name was called, I treasure the fact that my name and the title of my story will sit forever in the back pages of subsequent
Journey Prize
anthologies, side by side with the names of writers I admire – those I know about already, and those whose work is still to come. It’s a great privilege to be part of that tradition. How lucky I am – how lucky all we writers and readers are.”

– Miranda Hill

“The writing apprenticeship is a long one, perhaps neverending, and an appearance in the
Journey Prize
anthology is a boost of encouragement along the way. I am especially pleased that several of my former students have been included. Bravo for continuing to celebrate this challenging and exact genre – the story in its short form.”

– Frances Itani

“I feel like I’ve been travelling alongside the Journey Prize for a substantial chunk of my life. My dad (Alistair MacLeod) was the judge for the first award, and I very clearly remember the winning story, Holley Rubinsky’s ‘Rapid Transits,’ and the way that inaugural prize transformed her career. Later on, like lots of young writers, I was a loyal annual reader of the anthology. Sometimes I loved what I found in there, sometimes I hated it, but I was always thrilled when editors at journals would
nominate my stories and then devastated when my pieces didn’t fit into the final puzzle. When ‘Miracle Mile’ got the call in 2009 – selected by editors I really respected – I felt like this was the beginning of a real writing life, and when I was asked to be an editor in 2011, that was like being invited behind the curtain by the great and powerful Oz. Last year, I celebrated like a fool when one of my students, Kris Bertin, made the cut. I was proud of him and proud of the editors and proud of the whole series. It felt like a completed circuit, a journey all the way around and back again. A quarter century of great work has gone onto the pages of
Journey Prize
anthologies and into the production of these twenty-five books. Canadian Literature is flat-out lucky to have such an institution.”

– Alexander MacLeod

“David Bergen is a loser. André Alexis: also a loser. Anne Carson, Lee Henderson, Heather O’Neill – all losers. And I can claim to losing the Journey Prize not once, but
twice
myself. Being in the company of some of Canada’s best, brightest, and most beautiful losers is fine and good, but ten grand for twenty pages of typing? It would have been
awesome
to win.”

– Pasha Malla

“The
Journey Prize
anthology has become the proving ground for new, young Canadian writers, a who’s who of the coming generation.… I, for one, owe everything to the Journey Prize.”

– Yann Martel

“I’d been collecting the
Journey Prize
anthologies and dreaming of one day appearing within those pages, so every step of
the process left me almost beside myself with happiness. To work harder than you’ve ever worked before – and to have your work acknowledged in that very public way – is hugely encouraging for a writer. It’s special, too, because it almost never happens. I felt I was forever becoming part of this tradition that I had revered and which stood for something important to me, connecting me to writers whose work and careers I admired.”

– Saleema Nawaz

“Like a secret handshake or the password to a speakeasy, inclusion in
The Journey Prize Stories
feels like the first, magical entry to the tribe of Canadian writers. It’s an honour to be part of this heady heritage, alongside writers I grew up reading and whose work I adore. The Journey Prize is one of Canada’s most important literary institutions, because it ensures the continuation of great Canadian literature through its encouragement, support, and celebration of the next generation.”

– Grace O’Connell

“There is no guarantee, ever, that a writer’s work will be read and recognized, and as a beginning writer there are many moments of self-doubt in this regard. Inclusion in the
Journey Prize
anthology was invaluable to me in terms of the encouragement and boost in morale that it offered me.”

– Nancy Richler

“I remember buying twenty copies of the fourth
Journey Prize
anthology, and giving them out to family for Christmas with my story helpfully Post-it marked. I finally got up the courage to ask a cousin what he thought of it, and he said, ‘Yeah. It
was long. Didn’t finish it.’ Which seemed to be the reaction of most of my family, except for my mom and dad, who kept their copy on the coffee table. The press and the attention I received from being in the anthology were important to my career, but not as crucial as my family finally referring to me as ‘The Writer’ instead of ‘The Most Educated Bum in Kitamaat Village.’ ”

– Eden Robinson

“The Journey Prize provides something valuable, sincere, and joyful: a celebration of short stories, a way for them to be appreciated in public, right out loud. Every writer has to write for him- or herself – there’s no way to work that hard if you don’t love it – but it really does help to know that there’s a community out there, waiting to cheer if you get it really, really right. The Journey Prize is a huge cheer, and a huge support to short story writers.”

– Rebecca Rosenblum

“The day I received the letter that told me my story would be included in the
Journey Prize
anthology was one of the most memorable days of my writing career. I felt that it meant my writing had been truly seen, and that my story had been included in a large literary conversation, with authors I admire and respect. It was like I’d been given a ticket to fly to another hemisphere! It gave me the confidence I needed to finish my first book. Being a part of the Journey Prize – both as a writer and as a juror – has been a privilege.”

– Sarah Selecky

“I owe a huge debt to the Journey Prize. Before my nominations, I didn’t even know I wanted to be a writer. I saw my writing as arts and crafts, nothing more serious than macaroni
that’s spray-painted gold and glued to a tissue box. When my first story got nominated, I thought, ‘Fluke.’ When a second story got the nod, I thought, ‘Another fluke.’ When a third story was picked, I thought, ‘Career change!’

If there were no Journey Prize, I wouldn’t have kept writing. I wouldn’t be sitting in a room all alone, making up stuff in my head. Obsessing over my fiction. Looking at somebody and thinking what a great character he’d make in my novel.

When people ask how I’ve changed since publishing my first book, I reply that I’m now more neurotic but also more content. So a big thanks to the Journey Prize and McClelland & Stewart for feeding my neurosis and making me a happier person.”

– Neil Smith

“Quite a few years before I would have dared call myself a writer in public, while I was still working at a bank, I began to buy the
Journey Prize
anthology yearly. I did so because I understood it to collect the best new short fiction of the year, and I hoped quietly that I would be inspired. One afternoon, a colleague caught me reading the anthology at my desk. Knowing a little about my literary interests, he asked bluntly: ‘Are you in it this year?’ I wasn’t, and I said so. But after he left my office, I remember my astonishment, my disbelief at his suggestion. These are ‘real’ writers (I wanted to shout), and while I aspire in the same direction, I have yet to publish a single story! About eight years later, I was included in the anthology and I remembered my colleague. It occurred to me that – despite the years I’d been at it and the stories that had since been published – nothing up to that point had convinced me that I could be a real writer. And while I remained
astonished to see my name in those pages, the
Journey Prize
anthology now marked a beginning in which I could really believe. I’ve continued to read the anthology, and count it as an honour to have adjudicated during its fifteenth year. To me, its ongoing contribution is found on every page: new writers, new voices, new confidence.”

– Timothy Taylor

“ ‘Simple Recipes’ was my first published story, and the one that, to my utter amazement, made it into the
Journey Prize
anthology. I remember getting the phone call, and remember sitting on the couch for a long time staring at the wall. I had a strange sense of vertigo, to think that it might actually be possible to one day write a book, and for that book one day to find readers. I had always quietly hoped for that possibility, but hadn’t really thought it was within the boundaries of reality until that day.”

– Madeleine Thien

“Looking back over two decades of writing fiction, I find to my amazement that the greatest imaginative feat required of me thus far has been the conception of myself as a writer. The early years were the toughest. Every published story helped, but the day I learned that my work was to be included in the eleventh volume of
The Journey Prize Stories –
and thereby in a national tradition of literary discovery – was the day when the writing life I had long imagined finally began to seem real.”

– Alissa York