Books in Canada

Prize Thoughts

I AM WRITING IN RESPONSE TO Joan Givner's article, "All the Glittering Prizes" (November). While I agree with her that contests can be in part a lottery, the results depending a good deal on the taste and expertise of the judges, her accusation that contests provide "easy financial cushions for journals with limited subscription lists" is ill founded.

Philosophically, I agree with Givner that contests should encourage new writers and the fees shouldn't be so high as to prevent writers submitting. But the picture comes into sharper focus when the practicalities of running a contest and the reality of arts funding in the '90s are taken into account.

As the interim editor at Grain magazine, I know how much work and money goes into making a contest a success for both the participants and the sponsor. First of all, I'd like to address some of the misapprehensions that might have arisen as a result of Givner's summary of the Annual Short Grain Contest. Yes, entry fees are $20 per category, a fee that includes a subscription. (With an entry fee of $20, the same cost as a year's subscription, the entrants in effect get the contest free.) But additional entries to the same category, either postcard fiction or prose poem, are only $5. Thus a fiction writer, for example, can submit four postcard stories for $35. In the past, prizes have been $250 for first place, $150 for second, and $100 for third, plus payment for publication. This year, prizes in each category have doubled. We will award six winners and several honourable mentions.

Givner seems to object to funds from government bodies like the Canada Council going toward contest fees. But Grain's contest fees come from corporate donations. As for contests being an easy source of income, Givner would have found, if she'd done her research a little more thoroughly, that paying contest judges is far from the only cost involved. The contest must be promoted -- brochures must be designed, printed, and distributed. And staff must be paid for time spent preparing these materials and processing contest entries when they arrive. Also, thought must go into the original concept behind the contest to prevent it failing, as many contests do; the contest must be continually assessed, and perhaps fine-tuned from time to time, to ensure continuing success.

Givner's suggestion that entry fees be kept to $ 10 is very often not feasible. Literary magazines, operating with shrinking government funds, cannot afford to sponsor contests solely as an altruistic gesture, much as we'd love to live in a world where money is no object.

Grain is, like Givner, concerned with encouraging young and up-and-coming writers. We publish more new writers than most literary magazines of our vintage (Grain is in its 22nd year). In 1993 we sponsored the 21 Contest, a contest open to prose writers, poets, and essayists who turned 21 in 1993. Givner will be pleased to hear that the entry fee was $10 each, although every additional entry was also $10. For this the entrant received a copy of the issue in which the winners appeared, but not a full subscription. It may be that some young writers still found the fees prohibitive. We certainly never intend for entry fees to act as a barrier to entrants, as Givner speculates. It would be silly to assume that writers with $10 to spare are going to be better writers than those who are flat broke. Nevertheless, we did get more than 300 entries, many of them of remarkably high quality.

Perhaps Givner believes the purity of the arts should not be tainted by commercial aims. Well, I'll come right out and say it. Literary magazines, Grain included, need and (gasp!) want to generate income. If literary magazines don't attempt to bring in self-generated income, it won't be long before there won't be any literary magazines. And then where will the up-and-coming and the established writers of this country publish their work? It is naive and of little benefit to anyone to suggest that literary magazines can afford to run contests on a break-even basis, or at a loss. I suggest that anyone concerned that new writers aren't getting enough encouragement should consider making a donation to their favourite literary magazine, to help keep such essential markets open.

Elizabeth Philips Interim Editor, Grain Regina, Sask.

Geography Lesson

JOHN OUGHTON ("SPIRITS IN THE Sky, " November), how could you? Any map will show you that "the area just north of Ottawa" is in Quebec. The names associated with this "beautiful part of Ontario" are Gatineau, Hull, Aylmer, etc. Historically, it is known as the heart of Quebec's lumber industry -- as the photos in the book Gatineau Park clearly show. If you'd read some of the captions under them, you would have figured it out.

Once again, the "hinterland" suffers, it seems, as a result of TO-centrism. Ah, well. Perhaps our secrets are best left unshared and unspoiled.

An Outaouais Reader

Quebec
Another Best

T0 YOUR LIST OF 1994'S BEST books, you'll have to add the astonishing Mondays Are Yellow, Sundays Are Grey (Douglas & McIntyre), by Ellen Prescott.

Susan R. Richards

Vancouver, B.C.
Making a List

STEPHEN HENIGHAN'S PIECE "Behind the Best-Seller List" (September) overlooked these points:

1. As a national survey, the Maclean's best-seller list cannot reflect in detail the reading habits in local communities, although we do canvass bookstores in English Montreal.

2. The brisk sale of Reed Scowen's book was not reflected on our list because it was a paperback, and we list only hardcovers.

3. V. S. Naipaul sold well for a short time, despite the lack of a Canadian distributor, because of his outstanding reputation and because people ordered his book directly through stores that are canvassed for our list.

The reason that the Maclean's list ran in the Gazette is that Southam News approached us several years ago and we agreed to make our list available to Southam papers like the Gazette free. It would have been appreciated if the Gazette and/or Mr. Henighan had contacted us before blasting away.

It is a very positive development that the Gazette has started its own best-seller list, the better to serve Montrealers. Our constituency is a national audience and our best-seller list reflects national trends.

Robert Lewis, Editor Maclean's Toronto

Poetry Defined

COULDN'T YOU POSSIBLY assign as reviewer of the books of poetry that come to you such refreshing critics as John Donlan, whose letter in your December issue proves that he knows what a poem is and what the function of poetry is instead of those ubiquitous and interminable lovelies with a book or two to their names who think the art is confined to statement. Isn't there someone outside the coteries you favour who knows that the ail connects with delight through "the musical, sensory use of language" and that it does not lie solely in "who determines the line endings, the writer or the typesetter. "

Mediocrity is always at its best," as Somerset Maugham said to me (namedropping, this ending, as one of the lovelies recently pointed out to me).

Ralph Gustafson North Harley, Que.
Correction:

Elizabeth Denton's Kneeling on Rice, which was reviewed in our December issue, is distributed in Canada by Scholarly Book Services, and its price is $22.50.

Letters may be edited for length or to delete potentially libellous statements. Except in extraordinary circumstances, letters of more than 500 words will not be accepted for publication.