Ottawa - The City of Ottawa’s 14th annual 55 + Short Story Contest invites submissions of original, unpublished short stories or memoirs of 2000 words or less by Ottawa residents 55 years or older.

Eight entrants will be named to the 2011 Winners Circle, sharing recognition and prize money of $400. They will be recognized at An Afternoon of Readings on Wednesday April 27, 2011 from 1 to 4 p.m. at the
Heron Seniors’ Centre, 1480 Heron Road.

One of the winning stories will be selected for publication in the spring issue of Forever Young newspaper. Though contestants may submit multiple entries, they will only be eligible to win one prize.

An entry fee of $6.25 per story is applicable. Deadline for submissions is Tuesday, March 15, 2011.

This contest is co-sponsored by the Colonel By Retirement Residence and the Forever Young newspaper.

For full contest details, pick up a brochure at any City of Ottawa Client Service Centre or call the Heron Seniors' Centre at 613-247-4808. ext.2.

The New Quarterly's latest issue -- No. 114, "To List is Human" -- is guest edited by Diane Schoemperlen, and contains, among other things, a charming story by Julie Paul, "The Black Forest."

The esteemed New Brunswick journal The Fiddlehead celebrates its 65th anniversary with stories by Deborah-Anne Tunney and Julie Curwin, and poems by Emily Carr and charles c. smith.

And finally, a note on Yann Martel's Beatrice and Virgil, which, while it was lauded in the Globe and Mail as "ingenious," the New Yorker has, in a mini-review, derided Martel for making "a series of baffling choices" in his attempt to create thoughtful art out of the Holocaust. Sounds like the only way to decide which one is more accurate is to read it yourself.

We are sitting here listening to Darren Dreger ask if Canadians should be worried that both Martin Brodeur and Roberto Luongo were both pulled in their most recent NHL games. Meanwhile, professional misanthrope Christopher Hitchens has an interesting take on this whole Olympics thing. Initial reaction: get a grip, Hitch! Sure, sports are not a cure-all for the ills of the world, and athletes can be unpleasant jerks, if not downright slimy (including, sometimes, Canadians). But you could make similar claims about, say, free speech: it often leads to conflict and suffering, and  people who exercise their right of free speech to the fullest often reveal themselves to be cruel, ignorant or both. (There are lots of people we'd like to see contract lockjaw.) But that's a poor argument for scorning the practice as a whole.

I can understand part of Hitchens's point, though. All the headlines about skiing, skating and sledding obscure other important stories. There is, for example, a new development in the war in Afghanistan -- involving Canadians, of course.

And finally, something totally unrelated: this, friends, is what an imaginative, top-notch piece of short fiction looks like.