Contests and award programs…

There are little ones and big ones.  The former are generally moneymakers for the organizers—the author is either charged an entry fee or pays a “reading fee” (even if reader-judges are volunteers!).  The latter generally have some august committee of erudite scholars and narcissistic old women and men who have no idea what good storytelling is.  I don’t have much use for either the little or the big.

Sour grapes? No.  I haven’t entered any little contest in over ten years, and that was only...