Writing Contest Inspires Detective Fiction Writers
By Erin Simpson
Detective fiction is a classic and time-honored genre that has been captivating audiences for decades. This year, the Schlow Library’s Centre County Reads program has chosen Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon for its 2010 book selection and is hoping the tale will inspire readers to create a mystery of their own.
In honor of this book selection, Penn State’s Arts in Public Life project is sponsoring the Dashiell Hammett Writing Contest to find the best Hammett-inspired writing. The contest, which is open to all residents of Centre County, will be accepting previously unpublished works for consideration until February 1, 2010 and will award one overall winner with a prize of $200.
Professor Jonathan Eberne, who teaches comparative literature and English at Penn State, says he hopes this year’s book selection will attract people of all ages, including university students, high school students, and the general public. “People have a lot of different ideas about what constitutes detective fiction.”
Because this genre holds so much creative potential, Eberne and his fellow judges decided to open the contest up to further interpretation. In addition to the overall contest winner, additional prizes will be awarded for the following categories: best short fiction, best parody, best alternative genre (which includes poetry, graphic novels, dramas, and screen plays), best essay, and best entry for a writer under 18.
Prizes for these winners will include Library of America editions of Dashiell Hammett’s writings, a Barnes & Noble gift certificate, a Barnes & Noble gift bag, and State Theater tickets. The winning entries will also be considered for publication in Town&Gown.
Eberne is also a member of Arts in Public Life, which is an ongoing project that looks at how the arts exist in today’s world and considers new ways of covering arts both in the media and at Penn State. Eberne believes that The Maltese Falcon is a novel whose writing style is more accessible to the public and he hopes to discover more writers outside the classroom with this contest.
“Hammett is an interesting figure because he is one of the founders of detective fiction written in a certain style. During the 1920’s and 1930’s, lots of writers experimented with vernacular prose,” he says. Hammett’s unique style made his novel a huge success when it was published in 1930, and in 1941 it was turned into a critically acclaimed movie directed by John Huston.
“The language in the novel is stripped down and not polite. Hammett liked to boil down language in a way that was much closer to how people speak,” says Eberne. “And the writing contest is borrowing from that invention by giving people the opportunity to write detective fiction according to their own personal style.”
“Hammett also had quite limited ideas of who can be the good guy and who can be the bad guy. So this gives people a chance to escape from these conventions,” says Eberne.
Time is of the essence for all those interested in trying their hand at their own crime-solving work of fiction. All winners will be announced on February 21st, following a film showing of The Maltese Falcon at the State Theater.
Entries may be submitted electronically to hammettwriting@gmail.com or paper copies can be dropped off at any Centre County Library Branch. All entries must also include a brief biography, mailing address, and contact information in order to be considered.
“This contest is a slight social experiment to see what the most popular category will be,” says Eberne. “I anticipate that it will be fiction, but it will be interesting to see what the alternative categories bring.”