Congratulations to the 2016 winners of the Thomas Wolfe Memorial “Telling Our Tales” student writing competition. This year 158 stories were submitted, inspired by the writings of Thomas Wolfe.
Grades 4-5
1st Sarah Suzanne Pusser “Trying My Best” Odyssey Community School
2nd Hollin Hardy-Brasch “Alex Hunter” Odyssey Community School
3rd Ella Isabelle Skeen “Help Me” Odyssey Community School
Grades 6-8
1st Nicolas Okpych “The Boy and the Waterfall” Immaculata Catholic School
2nd Cael Conroy “The Shoe Store” Immaculata Catholic School
3rd Carlyn Shaw “Each Year” Rugby Middle School
Grades 9-12
1st Mira Mault “The Woman by the Railroad” Smoky Mountain High School
2nd Jordan Brown “The Girl Who Remembered” East Henderson High School
3rd Tyler Waliezer “When Almost Wasn’t Good Enough” Smoky Mountain High School
Thomas Wolfe, a writer known by his long, sprawling novels such as Look Homeward, Angel and Of Time and the River, has often fallen under criticism for his excessive wordy style. Yet, many critics in recent years have begun to praise his short fiction. And educators are discovering opportunities to teach creative writing using Wolfe’s shorter works.
Wolfe’s short story “The Far and the Near” was published in his first book of short stories, From Death to Morning. The story first appeared July 1935 in Cosmopolitan Magazine with the title “Cottage by the Tracks.” “The Far and the Near” details the story of a railroad engineer in the 1930s who passes a cottage every day for more than twenty years, waving to the women who live there but never actually meeting them or seeing them up close. Upon his retirement, he goes to the cottage, and the idyllic vision that he has built up is destroyed. Within its few pages, Wolfe’s short story emphasizes the potentially devastating effects on a person who is forced to confront the reality behind a vision. Since the work was written during the Great Depression, the loss of hope that takes place in the story would have been extremely familiar to Wolfe’s audience.