Volume 33.1

Competition
Fiona Lehn

The collective chose the theme of competition for issue 33.1 long before the theme chose me. I agreed to edit the issue, making jokes about potato sack races, the lottery, and pushy little league parents. Eventually, I pondered "All About Eve" complexes, sibling rivalry, and athletics, but I had to start reading the submissions before I understood: competition pervades nearly every aspect of our lives. Competition is human, it is female in a male-dominated culture, it is nurtured and nature, and necessary.

I set out to find women who inspired me with their competitive spirit and found many. Hazel McCallion, the long-reigning Mayor of Mississauga, shares her secrets of political success. The Wurtele twins, Canadian ski champions of the 1940s and 2010 Olympic torch bearers, give us a glimpse into women's sports competitions decades ago. And we're pleased to present a commissioned piece about sex discrimination in world championship sporting events by sports writer and champion cyclist Laura Robinson.

Our competition issue opens with our 2009 Writing Contest winners: Poetry judge Sachiko Murakami selected Jessica Hiemstra-van der Horst's "I told my first stranger I was pregnant" for first place and Wenda Naim's "Funny Bone" for second place. Audrey J. Whitson's "The Glorious Mysteries" and M.E. Powell's "Ghosting" took first and second place respectively in the fiction category, awarded by judge Mary Borsky. And in creative non-fiction, judged by Deborah Campbell, "April the Cruelest" by Adrianne Kalfopoulou won first place. "Why Wake Dayo?" by Carla Hartenberger took second place in that category.

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Congratulations to all our winners! And for those who are ready for our 2010 writing contest, Jennica Harper, whose second collection of poetry, What It Feels Like for a Girl, is available from Anvil Press, is our poetry judge; June Hutton, whose début novel Underground is available from Cormorant Books, will judge fiction; and Lynne Van Luven, University of Victoria professor and editor of Going Some Place and the celebrated collections of stories Nobody's Mother and Nobody's Father, will judge creative non-fiction. Deadline is June 15. Check our website for contest details. (We posted the 2009 Honourable Mentions there too—enjoy!)

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Perhaps there is no more difficult competition than when we face off against ourselves. Some days I have trouble enforcing boundaries with the cat, to be honest. But there's a trick or two to be learned in this issue—we hope you will find some new strategies to add to your playbook.

Bios

Kim Aubrey is a Toronto writer who grew up in Bermuda and holds an MFA in Writing from Vermont College. Her work has appeared in Best Canadian Stories, Event and other journals, and is forthcoming in The New Quarterly. Kim coaches writers and leads an annual retreat in Bermuda.

Michelle Barker has recently moved from Quebec to Penticton, B.C. with her family. Her poetry has appeared in several literary magazines. She has also published short fiction and nonfiction, and received a National Magazine Award for personal journalism. Presently she is working on a young adult fantasy novel.

Wendy Ding is an illustrator based in Toronto. She loves creating colourful images of youthful girls. Her work is mostly created digitally in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. Her inspirations are music, fashion, dancing, nature, and food. Visit www.wendyding.com to see more, and say hi at info@wendyding.com.

Adele Graf's poems have appeared in The Antigonish Review, Canadian Woman Studies/les cahiers de la femme, Parchment, Bywords Quarterly Journal and many anthologies. Adele lives in Ottawa, where she devotes her time to writing, singing, her family, and her cat.

Jennifer Manuel is an elementary school teacher in Kyuquot, BC, a small boat-in community on the west coast of Vancouver Island, where the Nuuchah- nulth people are generous and spirited, their children affectionate, and the stories compelling.

Gillian Wallace earned her PhD writing her thesis on original sin and is a graduate of the Humber School for Writers. She's had poems published in The Antigonish Review, ottawater, the Ottawa Arts Review, and forthcoming in Arc Magazine. In 2009, she won the Diana Brebner Prize for Poetry from Arc Magazine.