Defying his naysayers, former Archon Nicholas Gander took first prize in the Memoir category at the 2012 Chitter Radio Literary Awards on Friday night for his controversial autobiography, Not Good for the Goose.

Gander, who is new to the literary world, began his working life with The Park’s Goose and Gander Search and Rescue Association. In 2008, he was chosen to serve as Archon and the largest part of his memoir deals with the time he spent in that position.

Gander’s book stirred controversy immediately upon its release last October. One review, published in the Equine Echo, accused his publisher, Herring Press Books, of “profiting from tales told out of school” and another reviewer called the memoir “a big, honking mess.”

On hand at the Awards, Herring Press Manager Alida Silver brushed off talk of the controversy, saying only that the traditional silence of former Archons is “now a thing of the past.”

Other winners on Friday night were veteran novelist Hercule Parrot, playwright D.B. Platypus, poet Storm Walrus, and short story writer Albertina Mayfly.

NIML (Not In My Lifetime) was in fine form on Monday as they wowed the crowd that quickly gathered at The Park’s first pop-up music event.

It was an ordinary, hazy Monday afternoon, spectators said, when lead singer, Beau Ballentyne, grabbed a microphone from inside his shopping bag and began to belt out the group’s signature tune, MYPod or Yours?

The other two members of the group quickly joined him for what turned out to be a half-hour impromptu concert at the Tartan Crab Memorial Pond.

“There’s never been anything quite like this,” said onlooker Zaffi Newt. “They made quite a splash. It was a nice break in the day.”

Not everyone was pleased, though. The end of the concert was marred for some by a few vocal members of the group, “Keep Your Paws Out of Our Ponds.” Holding waterproof placards, they marched in a circle around the pond for a few minutes but, with no response from the crowd, they soon left.

“I don’t think they had many supporters there,” Newt said.

Domestic Canine poetry is a growing genre, publishing companies say

Just days before Enforced Domestication Awareness Month begins, The Park’s publishing companies have revealed that domestic Canine poetry is our fastest growing literary genre.

“For years, it was the feral experience, in both prose and poetry,” says Kezban Aslan, manager of Kynikos Press, one of The Park’s largest publishing houses. “But over the past few years, we’ve seen interest in domestic Canine poetry grow substantially.”

Indeed, The Park is home to six Canine poets, all former domestic companions to Humans, whose work has been nominated for the poetry prize at June’s Chitter Radio Literary Awards (CRLA).

“That doesn’t surprise me at all,” says Clement Samuel Tervuren, 2013 CRLA winner in the humour category.

“The Park has a very large Canine population and, besides, you don’t need to be a Canine to relate to their work. It’s very accessible to all species…and very powerful.”

It may be that emotional power that has fuelled rising sales this year. Wyuna Winkle, proprietor of The Literary Apothecary, says she hasn’t been able to keep those volumes on her shelves.

“I don’t know if it’s the increased awareness or the fact that life has been getting harder. But either way, I would say that domestic Canine poetry is a hot commodity. If one of them wins the poetry prize, we’ll have to scramble to get enough stock to fill the orders,” she says.