Listen to the stories, essays and poetry of the winners of the third annual Blue Sage Writers Anthology contest on Friday, May 14, at the Blue Sage Center in Paonia. A reception and book signing at 6 p.m. will kick off the event, reading begin at 7 p.m.

This year a poetry contest was run separately but parallel to the prose writing contest. Seventeen writers submitted one work of prose each (fiction or non-fiction) and 10 writers submitted poetry (up to three each) for 20 total poems. The contestants all served as judges, and in the final analysis, nine stories and 12 poems were chosen for the anthology.

Another change this year was that the Blue Sage Center partnered with Delta County Libraries’ Big Read, which turned out to be an extremely successful collaboration. As a result there were more entries from a wider geographic area. Writers were also encouraged to submit works consistent with the Big Read’s focus on Jack London’s “Call of the Wild.”

The Blue Sage thanks all the collaborators and participants for sharing their skills, their minds and their hearts.