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“The Atlantic contest was the first I had ever entered — actually, come to think of it, it was the first time I had ever sent out an essay.”

— Rosemary McGuire,
2004 finalist, The Atlantic student writing contest

Cordova fisherman Rosemary McGuire cast her bait into The Atlantic, and came back with more than a few nibbles.

Sharp eyes may have seen her name on p. 113 of the May 2004 issue of The Atlantic. The commercial fisherman and University of Alaska MFA student received Honorable Mention in The Atlantic’s national student writing contest for her story, “After Eden,” about fishing for salmon in Prince William Sound.

“The Atlantic contest was the first I had ever entered,” says McGuire — “actually, come to think of it, it was the first time I had ever sent out an essay.”

McGuire heard she was in the running while working a temporary carpentry job on a remote island off the coast of Maine. “One day my boss got a to-him-incomprehensible cellphone message saying that I was a finalist in the contest, which startled me no end,” she writes. “Weeks later, when I got back to Alaska, I found a letter from the Atlantic in my mail, saying that I had received honorable mention. I did not receive a prize, of course, but it makes me happy to know that someone read my essay and liked it.”

Another fish tale of hers fared even better, taking first place in the 2003-4 Intro Journals Project, a literary competition for the discovery and publication of the best new works by students currently enrolled in the programs of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs. Her story, “Togiak,” about herring fishing in western Alaska won first place for nonfiction. It will be
published in the journal Quarterly West.

Another Alaska winner in the Association of Writers and Writing Programs competition was University of Alaska Anchorage student Don J. Reardon, who took honorable mention for his piece, “Letter to a Tundra Basketball Star.”

Rosemary McGuire is a student in the MFA writing program at UAF. A lifelong Alaskan, as well as the daughter and wife of commercial fishermen, she is currently working on a collection of essays about living and working in Alaska and is seeking an agent for her memoir about fishing in Alaska waters.