Once again, this year, the annual Klondike Visitors Association (KVA) Authors on Eighth writing contest has two entry levels: one for those under 16, and the other for everyone else.
This year, the deadline for submissions (just announced in late May) is July 18, to give time for the judging, the results of which will be revealed during the annual Writers’ Block Walking Tour, which is scheduled each year on the Thursday, which kicks off Discovery Days weekend events (this year, that will be on August 17).
The tour, which takes a couple of hours, celebrates the lives and works of Jack London, Robert Service, Pierre Berton and Dick North, whose literary efforts have done so much to make the Klondike known around the world.
It begins at Jack London Square (run by the KVA), moves to the Robert Service Cabin (run by Parks Canada) and concludes at Pierre Berton’s Home (jointly run by the Writers’ Trust of Canada and the Dawson Community Library). It’s a cooperative venture.
Writer’s Block is our ironic nickname for that part of Eighth Avenue that bears the residences of these three authors of fiction, non-fiction and poetry, who were amazingly prolific during their lifetimes and never suffered from any sort of creative obstruction.
North, a journalist and historian, didn’t live on Eighth, but he established the Jack London Museum where the tour begins each year.
The rules of the contest allow for writing of all three types, and only insist that they reflect a given theme, which this year is Fragrance.
Entries should be in the range of 1,600 words, which makes it easy for them all to be published in the pages of our local Klondike Sun newspaper during the following year.
Submissions should be in Word format, with a cover page including the author’s full name, pen name (if preferred), email or postal address and phone number. The author’s name should not be included in the submission itself.
Send entries to [email protected].
Typically, the contest attracts entries from all over Canada and the United States, as well as some from farther afield.
COVID-19 took a bite out of entries to this contest, over the last few years, but in pre-COVID times, at least two-dozen aspiring authors tried out each year, and one or two of them had their pieces included in collections of short stories, later on.
Prizes in the three main categories include books by the four writers, and a gold nugget offered by a local placer mine.
