The image in this post is the type of thing that makes me want to write more, to go further. To really get out there.

Really happy to be shortlisted in the Ex-Puritan’s Austin Clarke Literary Prize in Excellence: https://ex-puritan.ca/news/austin-clarke-shortlists

This is what was written on the website about this contest, and about Austin Clarke:

We have long been admirers of Clarke’s work, and with this renaming our annual literary award, we want to encourage our readers and writers to think through what it means to rebuke the Canadian cultural establishment. We want our writers to continue Clarke’s legacy by reimagining the boundaries of Canadian literature. Equally important to this, however, is a focus on style. Although we divide this award by entries into fiction and poetry, we want our submitters to reimagine the boundaries of what fiction and poetry can look like. We actively encourage submissions that are experimental with form and unrelentingly demand an attention to their style. We believe that Austin Clarke would’ve wanted nothing less.

That is a legacy. I wish I could have met Austin Clarke. I cannot imagine what conversation we might have had. When I read the description of the award, I find myself in it. I don’t fit in many places with my writing, as it continues to evolve and stray into the farthest corners, but now and then… Now and then, I’m just so grateful that I have a home.

The story is called ‘A Moment for Indra Singh’. It is truly out there, in so many ways, and I’m so glad to have the possibility of it being published. I’m humbled. I don’t think I’m worthy of Austin Clarke’s legacy based on what I’ve read of him. It’s wonderful to be shortlisted.

Most importantly, this gives me the courage to go further. To push boundaries even more. To stray. To wander. To do all the things that I dearly love.