The Short List - East

Kaveh Mohebbi (Toronto, ON)

RANT

What if Shakespeare was alive today in this 21st Digital world?

~Speak not of my love, her heart now entwined.

A fortnight, she doth not come online.

Pray thee tell, our heart will soon walk.

Say t'is not true, she haveth me 'Blocked'.

For once twas a sultan, with Mermaid loved Sea,

But now, doth exalted, she states B-R-B

Haps like King Richard, I shall share the great Fall,

Why for art Thou, not a vessel of LOLs.

Dante! Inferno! Send my grief to hell!

Hold on to my dearest, no T-T-Y-Ls.

Mark me, it seems all hope must be gone.

From Kisses, to Sadness, Befallen Emoticons.

When Hark! What is this? Surely you Jest.

A Nudge from a stranger, an old B-F-F.

She tickles my interest, inspiration methinks

That she's truly my saviour, she sends me a wink.

Her presence embracing, she whisks me away.

She sends me a Message, though her Status: 'Away'.

Take me away, from the Wasteland apart.

A Message, a poke, Emoticon -- the heart.

A new face, a new friend, Salvation from End,

Love sure is tricky, when it's on MSN. ~

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How It Works

Write In!

Out of hundreds and hundreds of entries, just twenty Canadians made it to the Short List and won themselves an audition with Canada Writes. Then eight semi-finalists were picked to play in the Eastern semi-finals and Western/Northern semi-finals.

Read their winning songs, blogs, ads, rants and movie pitches!

Tune In… or Join Us!

On March 14^th and April 4^th, tune in to GO! on CBC Radio One at 10 am (10:30 am NT) for the Eastern and Western/Northern semi-final games in Halifax and Vancouver. The finals will be held in Toronto on April 18^th. Or join us at any of the three shows to root for the contestants in person. Go to cbc.ca/go for tickets.

Play Online!

The Canada Writes 09 Online Challenge is now over. Thanks for playing!

Updates

(Toronto, April 25, 2009)

It was a very tight race in the end. Our four finalists fought it out by blog, song, ad and a three-line story. First, they each drew a blog topic, from “the best hundred dollars I ever spent” to “one fact I would like to ‘un-know’”. Challenge number 2 was to re-write a song by Queen, with Valerie Stanois from the musical We Will Rock You bringing power vocals to their surprising new words. Then judges Geri Hall, Terry O’Reilly and Darrell Dennis sent Kaveh Mohebbi through the infamous Trap Door. Challenge number 3 was the radio ad. Clever ads for Cornhobbler’s Crematorium and Juice Bar (obviously not a real business) and Christmas greetings from the makers of Flank Chainsaws won Katie Sanders and Laurie Schwartz a last chance at writing glory, but it was Margaret Beach’s turn to go through the Trap Door. Finally, Laurie and Katie had to come up with the first two lines of a three-line story… on yellow writing pads on their laps…and in 90 seconds….

After weeks of effort and tension and achievement -- from the writing contest in January, through the auditions, the short list, the semi-finals and the finals – it was all over in a couple of minutes. Katie pulled ahead by a crucial point -- and became the winner of Canada Writes 09! Listen to the show! Read the blogs!

Winner of the Online Challenge! Ontario's Heather Smith is the winner of this year's People's Choice Award. Her winning entry was a re-write of the ABBA song 'Waterloo.' Take a look!