Welcome to the RPLA Showcase
Each year at the Royal Palm Literary Award Banquet, authors experience the joy of earning accolades for all the hard work that is often done in the privacy of the home with little to no recognition. Our goal is to showcase the best of the best at the 2015 Royal Palm Literary Awards and provide First Place winners with a well-deserved spotlight. Not only are we recognizing extraordinary talent, but we’re giving readers an opportunity to sample excerpts from the winning stories.
2015 Published Novella
Sewing Holes by Darlyn Finch Kuhn
Darlyn Finch Kuhn won First Place in the Published Novella category. Sewing Holes is a Southern Gothic novel set in 1970s Jacksonville about a girl grappling with complex family relationships, death, and desertion, with characters that ring true and a story that transcends time.
Click the link to read a sample:
Q & A with Darlyn Finch Kuhn
Q: Where do you get your story ideas?
A: Many of my stories and poems are inspired by real-life events I’ve witnessed or heard about. By exaggerating, combining characters, and compressing time, a compelling piece can be brought to life from even mediocre events.
Q: Anything in particular about your award-winning RPLA entry that you’d like to share?
A: Sewing Holes took twelve years, and countless revisions, before it saw print. Compassionate critiques and a stellar editor lifted the book beyond my own abilities, for which I am eternally grateful.
Q: Who do you credit with inspiring your writing?
A: Harper Lee and Connie May Fowler showed me that Southern stories could be meaningful and timeless. Philip F. Deaver made me believe I had some talent, and Lezlie Laws and Susan Lilley helped coax that talent out. Sena Jeter Naslund showed me the world and the myriad stories it contained. Brad Kuhn kept the lights on and my spirits up. Too many others to mention here, but I love them all.
Q: Any tips for new writers?
A: You don’t need anyone’s permission or approval to write. Express yourself in writing and share what is unique within you with the world. But don’t share too soon. Put your hopes, dreams, and secrets on the page. Read it later, and cut most of it away. What is left is your truth, whether or not the world recognizes its value and beauty.
David Edmonds
Another great post about a talented writer. Thank you, Bria Burton and congratulations to Darlyn Finch Kuhn for a spell-binding Southern Gothic.