Hey everybody — first of all, I want to thank you for your thoughtful, sometimes sleazy, always wonderful reminiscences of our fair city. I don’t think we could have hoped for such outstanding entries if we’d held this contest in Toronto [hold for audience applause]. Choosing the winner was a difficult task, because in a way, you’re all winners… because you don’t live in Toronto [hold again for audience applause, laughter, high-fiving].

Honourable mentions go to the cheek-biting story and the raccoon/hooker story. When choosing first place, however, I came down to two choices, the difference between them being that one was overwhelmingly familiar to me, and the other totally foreign.

Meghan’s walk through Strathcona is an immediately relatable experience for me — whenever my wife and I are heading downtown and have time to walk from our place on the East side, we go through Strathcona, a truly historic Vancouver neighbourhood which, as Meghan made clear, is alive with new discoveries.

On the other hand, I have never witnessed Melodie’s Opera Man. But in the research period leading up to my writing Vancouver Special, I put a call out to my facebook friends asking whom they would like to see interviewed for the book. A huge number wrote back that I should interview this opera guy, whom I had never heard of, much less seen.

In the interest of acknowledging just how much there is to learn about Vancouver, even when we think we know every corner and alleyway of our city, I’d like to award the free, SIGNED (if you can believe it!) copy of Vancouver Special to the Opera Man stalker, Melodie. Congratulations on the opportunity you’ve just been given to read my wonderful, wonderful book.

Note from Janice: Melodie is also the winner of the beautiful Emmanuel Buenviaje print.