Skiing Literature (Poetry) Contest 2019-20

The Contest. Racers enrolled in an ASC junior race program for the 2019-20 ski season are eligible to enter a poetry literature contest. The subject is "skiing," including ski racing.  Entrants will compete in several age-group categories.   All entrants will receive entry recognition. Category and overall winners will receive appropriate certificates and recognition and modest prizes (digital photo files).  

What Is Poetry? Really good question.  For our purposes it consists of any rhyming or non-rhyming submission considered poetry by modern standards.  In general, if it has "lines," it presumptively qualifies. The contest judge will decide whether a particular submission qualifies. (Example: "To ski, or not to ski, that is the question."  Was Hamlet speaking poetry? That would be a question for the contest judge(s).)  All forms are eligible: from iambic pentameter to free verse.  

Must Submissions Be Original Works by the Entrant? Yes. The entrant must have created the poem.  The entrant may adapt and re-write an existing non-skiing poem (example: "Racer, racer, turning tight, whether left or whether right . . ."), but a work of original insight will probably outpoint a clever adaptation. 

Required Subject? Skiing. Not simply as an ancillary topic squeezed in amid lines about snow, sky, mountains, or Trade Tariffs. Although ski racing is an important part of skiing, the contest subject is not limited to ski racing.  All aspects of skiing qualify, including things associated with skiing: skis, boots, etc. 

Quality? Whatever the entrant wants, but good poetry will ultimately prevail.  Could a really bad submission that shows no effort be a category winner?  No.  Could a work of genius requiring no effort (a young Yeats, dashing off an entry on an envelope between classes) win?  Yes. That seems unfair, but that's the way of both ski racing and poetry.  It isn't obvious what makes good poetry good.  Usually concision, insight, reflection, Deep Thought, precise vocabulary, are hallmarks.  But not always.  Ambiguity, like racing in fog, can lead to art, too.

Length?  Although somewhat longer pieces (14-28 lines, etc.) might be favored (effort counts), the contest isn't intended to elicit a Canterbury Tales epic of skiers on a pilgrimage.  But a short (two-line) piece would have to be very, very good to be eligible. A sonnet is 14 lines. Haiku, three. It is really easy to write a bad haiku.  Would a really bad haiku win?  Probably not.  But you never know.  To win a race, you first have to enter.

Recognition?  A list of entrants will be posted at the RTC; each entrant will receive a certificate; each category winner will receive a slightly more impressive certificate. The overall winner will receive an even slightly more impressive certificate. Maybe ASC will run the names of all entrants, category winners, and the overall winner on the website and maybe a few winning submissions.

Prizes?  Category winners may select up to three large (about 5mp) digital files taken by Bob Eastaugh during ASC races and events (such as the Brian Russell). One of those three must depict something other than an identifiable racer (mountains, sky, gates, courses, coaches, squirrels). Overall winner may select up to five large digital files, one of which must depict something other than an identifiable racer. Selections must be made from the race galleries.   Bob reserves the right to substitute if a selection is not of sufficient quality.

Entry Categories.  (1) Young (U14, U12, U10); (2) Middle (U19, U16); (3) Old (U21).  There are no gender categories; all genders compete equally within an age-group category.

How To Enter? Racers may either leave their poems in a collection box upstairs at the RTC or submit them by email to Bob Eastaugh at [email protected].  Racers submitting by email should also copy a parent or guardian. 

Entry Deadline. The deadline is February 10, 2020.

Winners' Announcement. March 1, 2020.  There may be an intermediate Finalists Announcement.

A final Encouraging Word:  Poetry can intimidate or off-put some people, even gutsy young people who are perfectly fine launching themselves out of start gates in speed races.  But there are actually analogies between ski racing and poetry: both reward precision, courage, effort, and agility.  The arc of a carved ski is equivalent to the nearly geometric arc of a perfect phrase.  Great personal satisfaction follows, even if the novice poet and the novice racer initially may be apprehensive. Don't be discouraged. Don't avoid a challenge.  Every effort will be honored, not ridiculed. Poetry rewards insight and passion and twists of logic.  You're competing with yourself, not Shakespeare.   

Results of the Skiing Literature (Poetry) Contest 2019-20

Corrected March 14, 2020

First Place, U12:     There was an unexpected three-way tie for first place in the U12 class, because entrants dominated three different categories. 

            Most Vivid Imagery:            Nikko King Thomas, for "From the Top." His short, vibrant work skillfully uses vivid images (the mountain as "a knife," crevasses with "open jaws of a hungry monster") in a precipitous rush downhill with a surprise closing twist.  It is extreme skiing as a board game (or perhaps what Game of Thrones would have been if it had visited the French Alps). 

            Best Use of Structure:         Tikkan Langland, for "Skiing." Her six-line entry cleverly begins each line with a word that starts with one of the letters in "SKIING."  Thus, "S" begins her first line: "So much fun!" And "G" begins her last: "Goals accomplished." The entry tidily discusses the benefits of the bonds of friendship whatever the weather and conditions, and the rewards of determination and perseverance.  

            Most Enthusiastic on Course:       Reese Woodward, for "Race Trail."  It is an in-the-moment celebration of Now.  It rushes, as if pulled ineluctably by gravity down a steep hill, through a slalom course ("a flush I see").  It nicely uses concrete descriptors ("Minus 10, my nose is cold" and "Blue then red" on course) and ultimately concludes with a thematic resolution ("There is no place I'd rather be") that is as satisfying as crossing the finish line after a flawless run.         

First Place, U16:     Annika Langland, for "Skiing." Her submission ably and passionately addresses themes of appreciation, reflection, and freedom in context of skiing and ski racing, and flows as smoothly as a well-set giant slalom. It effectively celebrates the effect of endorphins released through ski racing. But it also reveals self-reflection and insight in recognizing the life-long lessons learned ("forevermore") through skiing, and in supposing, perhaps wistfully, that the young poet will "never be more free."  

First Place, U19:     There was an unexpected two-way tie for first place in the U19 class because entrants addressed fundamentally different issues. 

            Best Discourse on Climate Change:          Randi von Wichman, for "Remembrance, Realization, Action."  This poem melds history - from the earth's beginning ("as a collection of space debris") - and the effects of global warming on the environment and inhabitants of earth (including polar bears and skiers). It urges action that will restore the planet and, incidentally, result in such deep powder that racers will have to cancel training and "go ski some powder." It implicitly recognizes tensions between nature and recreation, environment and human activity, and pleads for human restraint.  It ably discusses an existential threat that goes far beyond the sport of skiing.

            Best Examination of the Rôles of Snow:   Kennedy Kane, for "A Winter's Snow."  This piece cleverly examines snow's different rôles in interacting with nature and the poet.  Its ten lines each begin with a gerund (e.g., "Falling") and end with an adverb (e.g., "slowly") to explore some of the things snow does ("Dancing" and "Glittering") and how it does them ("stunningly" and "secretly").  Its very last word is an adverb that unexpectedly and ironically departs from the idealized functions of snow described in the first nine lines.  This abruptly brings the reader back to earth:  Having asserted in the second line that the snow is "[d]ancing i. . . sleekly," the last line tempers those idealized notions by concluding that "Saying the dance was for you, sappily." 

Overall Winner:      Annika Langland, for “Skiing.”  This is a particularly coherent and concise piece that nicely balances the joy of skiing with self-reflection, insight, and anticipatory wistfulness.  Despite competing against the strong contenders submitted by the other class winners, this work stands out. 

Awards:  Each class winner may select up to three high-resolution digital race images from the race galleries (Bob Eastaugh Imagery).  The overall winner may also select up to five additional digital race images from those galleries.