Matt Bateman
The Utah Iron Pen 2024
A marathon... of sorts
Every year, the Utah Arts Festival hosts a unique writing competition.
In the Iron Pen Writing Marathon, participants receive a writing prompt on Friday evening and have twenty-four hours to complete a short story or poem. The works are judged overnight by a dedicated team, and the winners are announced Sunday afternoon.
A couple friends encouraged me to participate, although I was traveling to Idaho Friday night and wouldn't have a lot of free time. But I figured I'd give it a shot.
So I wrote... in the passenger seat.
A five hour drive to Idaho at least gave me some time to put something together. The prompt was a black-and-white image of a solitary chair out on the salt flats near the Great Salt Lake.
Joining a family vacation didn't leave much time in the evening after arrival, but I was able to do a quick cleanup pass the following morning. Thankfully, the judges understand writing done withing twenty-four hours won't exactly be polished masterpieces. I sent it in and went back to vacation.
Sunday afternoon, I got a text from a friend at the festival that I had won. I thought he was pranking me at first, but then I saw the official post. I'm honored to have won for fiction, this is what the judges had to say about the piece:
Adult Winner: Matt Bateman for "The Lake Road"
The Lake Road offers the visual prompt as a way to witness and think about the passage of time and the inevitable changes it brings. This piece of fiction weaves in several stories between all the different characters and does so believably while remaining concise and allowing the narrative to move forward. The characters are complex, and the ending creates a sense of wonder.
I'm honored to have won for Fiction, and hopefully I'm able to create decent work outside the constraints of a twenty-four hour sprint!
❦
