by Jean B. Eggemeyer
June 16, 2009

There is no better summer read than a collection of short stories, which, individually, don’t require a large time commitment and can be put down and picked up weeks later without the need for a maddening backtrack to reacquaint oneself with the story line.

For fans of the legal non-fiction genre, a sure bet for entertaining summer reading will be, perhaps surprisingly, the August issue of the Michigan Bar Journal.

The Journal — the membership publication of the State Bar of Michigan, which typically features articles of practical application for those in the legal profession — will turn over some of its pages to the bar’s 2009 Short Story Contest. For the second time (the first contest took place in 2007), the more than 40,000 members of the bar were invited to submit their original, fictional, law-related short stories to vie for a first, second or third place win and publication in the magazine.

A panel of contest judges — including practicing attorneys and judges, published legal and fiction writers and law publication editors — is now in the process of picking this year’s winners from 26 entries. The judging process is blind, meaning the short story authors’ names are not revealed until the winners are chosen, and is based on points awarded by the judges for originality and writing quality.

The idea for the Short Story Contest was borrowed from the State Bar of Texas.

“State Bar communications staff read in the Texas Bar Journal in 2006 that the State Bar of Texas was holding a short story fiction writing contest for its members,” explains Linda Novak, Michigan Bar Journal editor and the contest coordinator. “We thought it was a great idea and could be great fun for our members and pitched it to the State Bar Publications and Website Advisory Committee.”

Committee members, who provide editorial guidance for the bar publications and online presence, were unanimous in supporting the idea, says Novak, and the short story contest was born.

The contest has been so successful and enjoyable for the staff, judges and members, the bar plans to sponsor it about every two years — as long as bar members remain interested.

Novak says there are many high-quality stories among the entries this year, just as in the first contest.

The first year, Appeals Court Judge William Whitbeck won the contest with an excerpt of a book that, at the time, was a working manuscript he was attempting to get in front of publishers. (See “Prominent Judge Pens Novel” for more on the book.) He has since found a publisher and the novel, with the working title “A Portion for Foxes” (that Whitbeck indicates may or may not make it through editing), is scheduled for publication in the fall of 2010.

His winning short story sets the stage for his legal fiction novel that is loosely based on the mid-1940s murder of Michigan State Senator Warren Hooper.

Judge Whitbeck says the contest was a lot of fun “not only for me but, I think, for all involved.”

“It encourages people to put pen to paper, which causes you to think about writing — and that’s good,” he says. “It was very encouraging to have a panel of neutrals read my story and think it was pretty good.”

“The contest is a really good idea,” he adds. “Lawyers get knocked a lot for their deadly dull prose…which is due to the constraints of the legal writing environment. So the recognition the contest provides is welcome and deserved. It gets you out of the typical legal writing environment and shows people that lawyers can write and can write interesting things.”

Although he didn’t enter the contest this year, Judge Whitbeck says he’ll likely be back for the third round.

Other winners of the first contest included attorney Randy Judd, for his story “Nobody’s Fool”; attorney Jeffrey Caminsky with “Crapshoot”; and attorney Robert Nelson with his story “A Little Collateral Damage.”

The 2007 contest-winning stories can be accessed on the State Bar website.

The 13 finalists in this year’s contest will be announced in the soon-to-be published July issue of the Journal, and the August 2009 issue, including the winning short stories, will be posted mid-month.

The online version of the Michigan Bar Journal is available free to the public, and non-members can also order hard copies of the magazine for $3.00.

Bookworm Jean B. Eggemeyer owns communications and marketing firm Carillon Communications LLC, serving the business and association communities.