KOOTENAYS ON LITERARY MAP

I happened to catch a programme on the radio announcing the winner of the 2011 BBC Short Story Competition. The contenders are all listed on the Radio 4 website here.

To my amazement, and delight, the winner turned out to be D W Wilson, a young Canadian writer from the Kootenays (south-western corner of British Columbia near the American border). The prize was £15,000!

The title of his entry is The Dead Roads and is set in the Kootenays. The website reference above gives link to hear the podcast (and other material).

Wilson "was born and raised in the small towns of the Kootenay Valley, British Columbia. He is the recipient of the University of East Anglia’s inaugural MAN Booker Prize Scholarship–the most prestigious award available to students in the MA program. His stories have appeared in literary magazines across Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom, including the Malahat Review, Grain, and Southword. He lives in London." [Amazon website blurb]

He has already written another selection of stories Once You Break a Knuckle to be published this autumn by Penguin Canada.

"Set in the remote Kootenay Valley in western Canada, he tells stories of good people doing bad things: two bullied adolescents sabotage a rope swing, resulting in another boy’s death; a heartbroken young man refuses to warn his best friend about an approaching car; sons challenge fathers and break taboos. " [Amazon blurb]