Steamboat writer credits CMC classes
By Mike McKibbin
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS – Making a living as a professional writer “wouldn’t be a bad life,” said Sara Patton.
While she hasn’t had any stories published yet, the Steamboat Springs resident is pleased her short story, “The Bull Rider,” was a recent finalist for the Iowa Review’s 2010 Fiction Award. The story competed against more than 400 applicants, according to Patton.
She wrote the story in two creative writing classes at Colorado Mountain College in Steamboat Springs.
The 40-year-old Iowa Review is ranked as the 18th top literary publication by the Web site everywritersresource.com. The revered journal is published at the University of Iowa, home of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, one of the nation’s best-known and most rigorous graduate-level creative writing programs.
Though a finalist, unfortunately Patton’s story did not make the next tier of being included in the Iowa Review’s December edition and earning a $2,000 prize. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Cunningham was among the contest judges.
Patton said it was “kind of a whim” to send out her story to several literary magazine contests. “Most of the time I forget about it. And you get so many rejections.”
She began writing “The Bull Rider” in a Creative Writing I class and completed it in Creative Writing II, both taught by associate English professor Lindsey Royce. Patton worked with a few of the college’s other English faculty members on the story as well.
“Most short stories these days are character-driven, and that’s the case with this one,” Patton said. “There’s a love interest, but he hasn’t had an easy life.”
While a friend of Patton rides bulls, she has not and does not plan to experience it firsthand.
Patton usually takes the three-credit creative writing classes at the college when they occur, according to Royce. Patton plans to take Royce’s next class in the fall.
“She just takes them for her own pleasure,” Royce said.
Royce called Patton’s achievement “a great honor.”
“I want to thank the college,” Patton said. “Had I not taken the classes, I’m not sure I would have been as motivated to finish” the story.
“Our little CMC is a good school,” she added.