2008 Literary Spa Memoir Contest

Finalists

Carolee Ackerson Bertisch for "Within" is a series of vignettes containing some poetry.  The vignettes can all be appreciated on their own.  It’s difficult to tell where the story is going from the number of pages submitted, but you know her biography will be revealed. 

Norb Janis for "Life in the Tropics" which was almost put aside because it was presented as a travelogue (How a poor kid from Pittsburgh ended up running an international accounting firm in South America).  Given a second chance and once you get into the mindset, you really begin to appreciate the humor.  While he's not always (maybe never) politically correct, his culture clashes in Puerto Rico, Haiti, and Ecuador will leave you laughing.  It's fast-paced, interesting and entertaining.

Michele Leavitt for "The Poison Cure," the story of a woman's struggle with her treatment for Hepatitis C at a time in her life she has taken in her sexually active niece and is developing a love relationship of her own.  In the beginning she presents background information about the disease and then transitions to her diary entries through which she reveals her background and life.  It’s the story a very interesting person struggling with a serious illness.

Heather McLachlan for "Pearls of Wisdom" which covers the time in a woman's life when her son was deployed to Iraq, she was caring for her elderly (and eccentric) mother, and had just experienced the unexpected death of her only sister.  It sounds depressing, but is well-written and is a real page turner.  After reading the first hundred pages, you’ll want more.

Carol O’Dell for "Said Child," a memoir of a young girl adopted at the age of six by a religious (Pentecostal) family.  The first 100 pages cover her life through adolescence and her struggle for an identity.  It's very well written, smart, funny, poignant.

Yvonne West for "Third Person" which is just that, a memoir written in the third person using a false name.  It doesn't fit the definition of memoir as it is autobiographical (birth to marriage in the first 100 pages) but parallels European and American history pre and through WWII.  The woman was born in France and lived on the island of Corsica before fleeing France with her family at the outbreak of the war.  It is very well-written, creates a sense of place (and history) through the child's eye, and is peppered with French words and phrases.  It is a series of small vignettes covering a very important period of history.