Local writer wins the Carter V. Cooper Award

North Bay writer, Ken Stange, has won the first annual Carter V. Cooper Award for Short Fiction, sponsored by Gloria Vanderbilt in memory of her son and run by international literary magazine, Exile (founded by Barry Callaghan in 1972). While Ms. Vanderbilt is the railroad heiress perhaps best known for her designer jeans and perfume, she is also a widely respected writer and visual artist.

The competition was announced in the summer of 2010 and hundreds of stories were entered from across the country. Ten were shortlisted by a jury of writers, and will be published in a new anthology later this month. Ms. Vanderbilt made the final selection from these ten, awarding two prizes for emerging writers and one for an established writer. Ken Stange’s story, “The Heart of a Rat,” won the prize for an established writer. He will be attending the Toronto award ceremony and dinner on May 28th to accept his prize from Ms. Vanderbilt.

Ken has been a published writer since the 1970s and his work appears in countless journals, magazines and anthologies, both nationally and internationally. He is a founding member of the North Bay Literary reading series, Conspiracy of Three.

He is a professor of psychology at Nipissing University.

Story submitted.