It’s time for the results of San Jose State University English Department’s annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest (sjsu.edu/depts/english/2007.htm). [EDIT (6/6/10): dead link] According to the official site, the contest is
a whimsical literary competition that challenges entrants to compose the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels.
The authors have fun with the good bad-writing. I especially liked the delightful audacity of
- the Children’s Literature winner, Dave McKenzie (“Danny, the little Grizzly cub . . .”), and
- the Romance dishonorable mention, Linda Morgan (“Ruthanne felt as though she was frozen in time . . .”).
Sadly, the English Department missed a simple fact of math when they said:
2007 is the silver anniversary of the Contest that began at San Jose State University in 1982, making Jim Gleeson the 25th grand prize winner.
It is the 25th, silver, anniversary (Current year – First year), but they presumably awarded a prize the first year, making 2007′s Jim Gleeson the 26th grand prize winner (Current year – First year + 1).
See also my post:
2006 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest winners