Once a year, the work of local writers was printed, bound and added to the shelves of the Homer Public Library. The collection grew to include fiction, nonfiction, short stories, poems, autobiographies, essays and a collection of letters to the editor, with no submissions turned away. There are a total of 78 volumes, each bound in a blue hard cover, some with cover art by local artists.
The quality of writing was not the point, Joy Griffin pointed out. It was keeping the stories in circulation. As a side benefit, the public has access to bits of history documented by the writers. There’s Carolyn Coon’s poetry inspired by life on St. Paul Island. There’s Diana Tillion’s description of Halibut Cove’s beginnings. There’s Margret Pate’s account of Army life during World War II.
After Joy Griffin died in 2002, the Top Drawer program almost disappeared, along with the writing it strove to save. But a group of library volunteers have committed to keep it going.
Submissions are currently being accepted. The current round of submissions will be bound and cataloged for circulation as they have in the past. Thanks to a grant from Homer Foundation, one volume also may be selected by Kenai Peninsula authors Dan Coyle, Tom Kizzia and Rich Chiappone as being of exceptional literary merit and awarded packaging from iUniverse, a publisher that offers self-publishing opportunities and marketing services.
An entry form and guidelines for the 2005-2006 submissions are available at the Homer Public Library or on the Web at http://library.ci.homer.ak.us/topdrawer.htm. The deadline is Jan. 31.
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