Miranda Hill, author of Sleeping Funny, a forthcoming debut collection from Doubleday Canada slated for September 2012, wins the Writers’ Trust / McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize for $10,000 for her short story, “Petitions to Saint Chronic” published by The Dalhousie Review.
“A story of miracles, Miranda Hill’s “Petitions to Saint Chronic” is itself a wonder of narrative art. A desperate man falls from a 24-storey building and a cast of modern-day pilgrims huddle in the hospital lobby to await a divine intervention that may never arrive. Can he possibly live through this? What is God’s plan for these people? How can they go on? And where should they place their faith? Each of Hill’s characters is desperate in a different way and each seeks a different kind of deliverance. This is writing of the highest order, packed with insight, empathy and suspense. “Petitions to Saint Chronic” is a story of survival. It will live on in the memory of all who read it.” – Jury Citation
Miranda Hill is a recent graduate of UBC’s MFA program. “Petitions to Saint Chronic” was her first published story. Her fiction has subsequently appeared in The New Quarterly, and her collection of stories is forthcoming from Doubleday Canada. Hill is also the founder of Project Bookmark Canada, a national charitable organization that places text from stories and poems in the exact physical locations where literary scenes are set. She lives in Hamilton, Ontario.