Everybody’s a winner

The short-fiction issue is always fun for the folks here at RN&R world headquarters who get to select the winners. This year was no exception. The editorial staff, Deidre, Miranda and I, read every single entry, winnowed out our favorites and selected our top 25, which we then compared, discussed, voted on and negotiated over until we came up with 25 selections we three could live with. There were stories that were in our individual Top 10s that didn’t make it into the final 25. It’s weird how subjective it all seems—this is good; this was an advertisement disguised as a story; this has a good plot and character development, this has great description. What I’m trying to say is there were some really nice little pieces that didn’t make it onto the pages of this issue that might have on another day. For those whose works didn’t make the paper, just think of it as a case of true genius often not getting the recognition it deserves. Happens to me all the time.

At any rate, the fervent engagement of our reader-writers gave me an idea. I feel like visual artists get left out of this short-fiction deal, so, I’ve proposed a new contest: we’re going to have a competition to design the cover of our “Best of” issue. As many of you know, our “Best of Northern Nevada” issue is one of our biggest, most anticipated and most popular issues every year. This year, the issue will run on Oct. 9. Although it may take a couple weeks to work out the contest details, I wanted to give people plenty of time to begin thinking about their projects. Basically, potential artworks will have to be square (reproducible to 10-inches by 10-inches), must incorporate some negative space (a good proportion of area for text), will use a 1970s theme and evoke concepts of “the best.” The contest is open to all amateur and professional visual artists who don’t work at the RN&R. Anyway, watch for house ads in the newspaper in coming weeks for further details.