I was one of the entrants in the Mark Twain writing contest and was quite disappointed that my work did not receive even honorable mention. Too bad no feedback will be forthcoming regarding why my writing fell short of the judges’ standards. I feel the winning entry was “adequate” however I did not hear Mark Twain’s ‘voice’ in the piece and I wonder if Mr. Clemens ever used the contraction ‘it’s’ which Mr. Bagby employed. Sour grapes I know, but I will file my cherished entry in an appropriate manner and, after the bonfire, move on.

As the person who collected all the pieces for the contest, I can tell you that we had some really incredible entries, yours among them. But I can also tell you that each entry was sent to the judges with no identifying information and that the eligible pieces were judged according to 3 standards – Skill, Creativity, and “Twain-ness.”

Thanks for taking the time to enter the contest and best of luck with your writing.
- Sarah Burningham, HarperStudio

Congratulations to Mark! It was a fun contest to take part in — would be great to read more entries in order to see the wide reach and inspiration Mr. Twain had on participants.

Congratulations to Mr. Bagby though my main point is addressed to fellow writers like Donald: Writing contest winners don’t necessarily indicate writing talent, especially if the judges are looking for a certain something that will appeal to corporate sponsors and the purchasing public. This may or may not be true in this instance. Given Twain’s stubborn stance against all things contrived or artificial, keep writing, Donald, staying true to your unique writer’s voice. As the saying goes, better to be an imperfect original than a perfect imitation of someone else’s voice–even a master like Twain!

Congratulations to Mr. Bagby, but I must concur with Mr. Benjamin. I was so suprised that my entry didn’t make it to the finals, that I emailed Twainia to see if it was actually received. (It was not.) Perhaps other writers’ works were not successfully uploaded either. I would love to see the entries from the other finalists if they are willing to share.

“It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.” So…as one of the writing contest’s disgruntled also-rans I stand corrected in my supposition that Mr. Clemen’s never used the contraction “it’s” for “it is.” But let me hasten to lend my congratulations to Mr. Bagby. I am not sorry he won, just sorry I lost. Or possibly just sorry. Thanks to other commentors who advised me not to be discouraged by accidents of fate or whims of judges; and to others who indicated they too were not selected, you have my sympathy. By the way, I’ll (I will) be glad to share my non-winning entry with anyone who cares to view it. It is (it’s) available in a series of sixty-seven carefully crafted sentences each secreted inside a Chinese fortune cookie. Start your collection today! I realize this could create confusion if the reader does not obtain the sentences in order, however I have taken the precaution of numbering each sentence: therefore the task of re-assembling the entire piece should pose little challenge. I recommend dining with friends to increase the number of fortunes available at the close of each meal. In closing this sad chapter in my literary life, let me say best of luck to all entries–sucessful and not–and hats off to HarperStudio (Harper’Studio?) for creating the stimulating writing contest in the first place. And let us (let’s) not forget the publication that started it all: “Who Is Mark Twain?” soon to be available in fine stores everywhere and as an abridged version in Readers’ Digest under the alternate title “Who’s Mark Twain?”. I read a preview of the new collection in the New Yorker magazine and I highly recommend this never before published collection of some of Clemens’ “lost” works and I sincerely look forward to someday reading a retrospective of Mr. Bagby’s mislaid prose.