Author’s Worst Isn’t Quite Bad Enough

Julie Stangeland was honored in the 20th annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, given to writers of the worst beginning to an imaginary novel.

The contest was created by the English department at San Jose State University to promote wordplay. It is named for Victorian novelist Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, whose 1830 novel “Paul Clifford” began with “It was a dark and stormy night.”

Stangeland’s second-place entry reads:

“The lone monarch butterfly flew flutteringly through the cemetery, dancing on and glancing against headstone after headstone before alighting atop Willie Mitchell’s already lowered casket, causing gasps of awe to fly from the open mouths of five or six lingering mourners, until a big shovelful of dirt landed on it and it died.”

This year’s contest drew thousands of entries from around the world. The winner, Sera Kirk of Vancouver, British Columbia, took the only cash prize: $250.