Winning Shorts: Renfrew Victoria Hospital Short Story Contest

R.G. Moyles is a professor of English at the University of Alberta and
the co-author of Imperial Dreams and Colonial Realities: British Views
of Canada, 1880–1914.

That Renfrew Hospital, as part of its 175th anniversary celebrations,
should sponsor a short-story contest is a vote of confidence in, and a
boost to, the many writers who deserve to get into print—writers like
Tony Cosier, Tamara Franz, Robert G. O’Riordan, Allison Gibson,
Beverley A. Young, and 15 others whose stories, though not always as
artful as one would wish, nevertheless demonstrate considerable skill
and reveal the varied face of Canada. In stories about the adoption of a
Native into a white family (“When Jacky Came”), about journeys into
adulthood (“Tailings”), about giving birth to a premature baby
(“Natural Laws”), and about many familiar and unfamiliar experiences
of everyday life, these writers have much to say that is worth saying.
Their stories embody a genuineness, a lack of artifice, that is very
appealing.

The lack of an introduction is unfortunate. We learn only that “the
twenty stories in this book are the best of the hundreds we received
from across Canada.” More is needed—not only about the contest, but
also about the stories and the people who wrote them.