I'm pleased to announce that BAD THINGS HAPPEN was a finalist for this year's Alistair MacLeod Short Fiction award, and has won The Danuta Gleed award from The Writer's Union of Canada. A very special thanks to the Gleed family, and to the judges--Caroline Adderson, Judy Fong-Bates, and David Bergen--who had something very nice to say:
I found out that I had won while at work, sitting in the basement office of my bar, measuring liquor bottles and preparing a till for the morning shift. I was quite surprised I had won, since I was up against some terrific competition (including the Winner of the Alistair MacLeod award, my friend Kerry-Lee Powell):
I went upstairs, told my wife and coworkers, had a beer to celebrate, and then went back down to finish my work. I thought about how I might commemorate this moment. I thought about taking a picture of myself, but decided instead to take a picture of where I was. Without being too dramatic, I would really like to make it known to other people like me--who might be toiling away at some foolish project---that it is possible to make a great leap forward, even while sitting in a place like this:
Thank you all so much for your kind messages.
-KRIS