La Conner writers win, place and show in ‘Magic Skagit’ contest

Most of the poems 4-year-old Lenore Micka-Foos dictates to her dad find homes with her admiring relatives.

The first-place poem she wrote for the Great Hunt for Magic Skagit Stories will find a home in print.

Lenore’s “The Great Skagit List” was one of 61 entries in the Skagit Historical Museum’s debut writing contest. Youth, teen and adult winners in the poetry and essay categories were announced last Friday during a Facebook Live broadcast from the Museum.

“A big part of this contest was about getting people to recognize that the Museum is more than just a bunch of old stuff in a building,” said director Jo Wolfe.

“We are the keeper of the county’s history and that includes all kinds of stories.”

Many of those stories have a La Conner or Conway slant, including all 11 winning entries. Six writers from Conway School, whose entries were school assignments, swept the youth and teen essay and teen poetry categories.

The four winning writers in the adult essay and poetry categories – and Lenore, of course – hail from La Conner or greater La Conner.

In the essay category, Glen Johnson’s first-place story, “The Tough Year of 1990,” captures that June’s Fir Island flood from a farmer’s point of view. Second-place winner Joan Cross says she used her entry “Tulip Pedal” to make sure La Conner’s role in founding the Tulip Festival goes on record before it is completely erased by the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival’s “official” La Conner-less version.

The winning poets focused on the region’s beauty and agriculture. Second-place winner WSU junior Lane Harlan says the inspiration for his poem “Rosario Strait” “came from all the times fishing on the weekends when I was a kid with my dad Michael and grandpa Mitch and the long boat rides out to the Strait and the fun and excitement we would have fishing together.”

As I typed Lane’s name into my notes during the Facebook Live ceremony, I thought to myself, “oh good, I didn’t win.” There was no way the poem I turned in, about farmers meeting for morning coffee, would get more than an honorable mention.

I was wrong. Contest chair Patsy Good’s next words were, “And first place goes to ‘Handing Uncle Art’s List around the Rexville.’” I shed my reporter role and hollered with excitement!

People from La Conner also played behind-the-scenes roles in the contest. During the ceremony, Good thanked poet Georgia Johnson for mentoring contest organizers who had never participated in or hosted a writing contest. Other La Connerites helped underwrite the prizes, which ranged from $50 to $250 and read and score all 61 entries before they were handed to the final judges.

Winning essays were chosen by WSU doctoral student Ryan Booth, a member of the Upper Skagit Tribe with ties to the Swinomish. Winning poems were chosen by former Washington State poet laureate Sam Green. (That is me hollering again!)

“This was an opportunity to test the waters,” said Good, “and we’ll definitely do it again.”

The 11 winning essays and poems will be published in the museum’s 2021 edition of The Skagit River Journal before the August 5 Pioneer Picnic. All 61 entries will become part of the museum’s collection.

When I called Lenore and her dad Karl Micka-Foos to learn more about my fellow poet’s technique, he explained that he and Lenore “tried to think of different things we knew about Skagit County and then tried to think of other things that rhymed with those words.”

He thought she mentioned Korea twice because she has a toy globe that she likes. Lenore politely contradicted him.

“I just wanted to make it really silly”, she said.

Her plans for her $50 prize? “I will buy something that is fun to me and I will play with it all the time.”