[Max Goodman]

The Crazyhorse Cross-Off Contest
Win a free subscription to Crazyhorse by trying this cross-off writing exercise: Take the below paragraph of writing as your start. From it, cross off or delete words, crafting the remaining words into either a poem or a very short story of no more than 40 words. If you love an extra challenge, retain the original paragraph's word order as the word order of your own poem or story; otherwise, feel free to re-arrange the 40 or fewer words as you wish.

E-mail your entry of no more than 40 words to crazyhorse@cofc.edu

The ten winning entries will receive a free one-year subscription to Crazyhorse.

Deadline to enter is next Thursday, April 7, by 5 p.m.

Here is the paragraph to start with, from Andrew Sean Greer's fantastic essay "Gentlemen, Start Your Engines" (originally published in San Francisco Panorama and reprinted in The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2010) about camping at a NASCAR race for the first time:

"I want to make it clear that I have been camping before, and I'm not just talking about Burning Man. I'm trying to say that I've lived in Montana and backpacked for hours into the wilderness, just me and a friend, where we set up our camp beside a little-known hot spring, and while my friend napped I got in au naturel and was promptly joined by an enormous female moose. There we sat, me and the moose, enjoying the steaming water, looking out blissfully at the sunset together like a honeymooning couple, while I summoned the courage to call in a wee voice: "Help me!" If I had been wearing pants I would have peed them. But I survived my wildlife encounter, and made a fire, and bear-proofed our foodstuffs, and did all the things one does when one is camping. This is not a story of gay San Franciscans setting up a Moroccan hideaway among all the army-surplus tents, complete with mirrored pillows and a Porta-John covered in veils. I am proud to say it is quite the opposite."

(for more info on the journal: (http://www.crazyhorsejournal.org/)

[Birthe Myers]

There is a fee of $15.00 to enter the competition. I think that is rather steep, but the purpose is to collect funds for the magazine, so I suppose it is a creative way of asking for support.

OOOOOOps. That is what comes of staying up too late and being hasty. THERE IS NO FEE.

MY MISTAKE. AND HEAPS OF APOLOGIES.

[Max Goodman]

[deleted]

No biggie, Birthe. Thanks for the correction.

(Maybe you should delete the first paragraph of the inaccurate post. Thinking there is a steep fee might incline some to stop reading right there.)

[Birthe Myers]

Max,

MANY APOLOGIES. I made a mistake. It is the Mc Guffin 'Poet Hunt' that charges $15.00 per entry.

The Crazyhorse contest is free.

I received the two emails together, and in late night haste I mixed my information. I am very, very sorry. Very sloppy of me. I will double check before I post anything again forever after.

[Gail White]

I'm working on a relationship between a hot San Franciscan female and a wee steaming moose.

[Max Goodman]

Originally Posted by Gail White

I'm working on a relationship between a hot San Franciscan female and a wee steaming moose.

Yes, there are some interesting possibilities!

I've been trying to keep the words in order, though, and haven't come up with anything I like. Shifting the words around, though allowed, feels like it would be too easy. Maybe I'd learn otherwise if I tried it.