Hemingway Writers Challenge Winner

Robert Wheeler’s book; Hemingway’s Paris: A Writer’s City in Words and Pictures that inspired the challenge with the photo entitled “Place de la Concorde.” Writers were asked to submit a total of 200 words and include the two words Hemingway might have used to describe the city of Paris where he and his first wife, Hadley Richardson, lived in the 1920’s.  Those words were "my love."

More than 100 submissions were received. Congratulations to NH writer Bonnar Spring for her winning submission. Bonnar  received $150 and a free membership to New Hampshire Writers’ Project.

It’s cold for autumn in Paris, too bleak and rainy to escape our flat, which reverberates with

echoes of silent meals and lovemaking. He drains his coffee and sets the cup down. “There’s a

train for Madrid at noon.” I hold out the fleeting hope he’ll add, as he once would, “Let’s go.”

“Some things I need to do,” he says. Outside the station, he pulls away his arm and bends to

kiss me. My fists clench; I look away. He whispers, “Au revoir, mon amour.” He isn’t French, but

he likes the economy of French phrases like this one. It’s not “goodbye, my love,” he insists. “Au

revoir means ‘until I return.’” He always returns. In a week. A month. Comes back smelling of

another woman or just sunshine and cigars. He’ll have stories. Some will be true. I walk to the

flat and light a cigarette. When he returns this time, will I be here? I sit at our table by the

window, my view of Paris rooftops all but obscured by thick gray clouds and teardrops of rain

running down the pebbly glass. If the sun comes out before I finish my cigarette, I’ll leave . . .

Listen and watch New Hampshire actor Chris Savage read Bonnar Spring’s winning submission for the Hemingway Writers Challenge:

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