Thank you. Thank you vera much

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/12/2007 (6523 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THE message on the answering machine at the home of Marya Kalen, the first-prize winner of the 2007 Winnipeg Free Press/Writers Collective Non-fiction Contest, is pretty standard stuff — Sorry we missed your call, blah blah, yadda, yadda.

The way it ends is pretty standard, too. Or rather it would be standard if not for the pronunciation. “Thank you vera much,” a resonant voice says with a kinda twisted lip slur that could only be Elvis, as in Presley, as in The King.

Which should come as no surprise because Marya Kalen’s partner is John Welsh, an “Elvis Tribute Artist” that she met last year at a karaoke night. “It was true love and we’ve been singing together ever since.”

Living with a union education administrator by day and The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll by night has proven to be something of a wild ride — last weekend, for example, John sang at Buzz Hargrove’s wedding.

And it was, in fact, a wild ride, a parade of 170 Elvis wannabes in Oakville, Ont., where Kalen recently moved from Winnipeg, that forms the basis of her winning entry, Elvis in Wonderland.

The theme of the contest this year was Yikes! The idea was to write about out-of-this-world experiences. The parade of 170 Elvis wannabes and 80,000 adoring fans, many of whom don costumes so as to better wear their love on sleeves or capes, was judged to be the best of 94 Yikes! stories.

Marya Kalen, who has three times entered the 48-hour novel-writing contest and who has won an honourable mention in this contest in the past, received $500 prize money. Her story will be published on Dec. 30.

The parade of contest winners, however, begins today with Looking Back, by Winnipegger Roy Mac Echern. You can see for yourself why judges found there was a considerable Yikes! quotient in his tale about what it can mean to serve in the Canadian Forces post-9/11.

Thursday, the Free Press will publish You Make Plans, by Winnipegger Kerri Martin and which, like Mac Echern’s piece, was awarded an honourable mention.

Friday, the winner of third prize and $200 will take readers to Namibia, where Richard Simons of Cross Lake not only serves up a Yikes! experience, but twists it at the last minute to create a wicked ending.

Saturday, look for I used to Love to Sing, by Cher Hebert of East St. Paul. Hebert, who has written all her life for friends and had never before entered a contest, won $300.

On Sunday, of course, watch for Elvis in Wonderland.

And on Monday, watch for the winners of the 2007 Writers Collective (Adult) Poetry Contest. This will mark the first time that the Free Press has published winners of the poetry contest. The Free Press is pleased to present the poems, but more, to present the poets, who it might be said strive hardest of all writers to distill “non-fiction” to its essence.

Thanks to Cynara Geissler of the Writers Collective for co-ordinating the contest and fellow judges Janine LeGal and Chris Rutkowski.

And a very special thanks to everyone who entered both contests. It was, as always, a pleasure to share so many diverse experiences, to travel the world — the wide world and the inner world — with Manitobans.

Thank you. Thank you vera much.

gerald.flood@freepress.mb.ca