From fridges to fiction

How a local mechanic became a prize-winning author

Barry North worked as a refrigerator mechanic for the St. Charles Parish Schools for 28 years before he published his first poem in 2007.

Now his poems and short stories have been published in about 20 national literary magazines and this year he won his most prestigious honor, the 2010 A.E. Coppard Prize for Fiction with his story “Along the Highway.” He was also named the winner of the 2009 Long Story Contest International with that story.

“Along the Highway” takes the reader into the mind of a young woman who has had to grow up too fast in a hard life of empty dreams and a broken family next to a busy Louisiana road.

North said he got the idea years ago for this newest prize-winning story.

“It’s kind of interesting in how the story developed in my mind. When I was working I would stop in that little Exxon station on Highway 90. Next to that station there was an old trailer that looked like it was abandoned and I used to just sit there and look at that trailer and imagine the people who might live in a situation like that,” North said. “That got my imagination started and it just kind of went on from there.”

Long Story Contest International judge and writer Tom Smith said that North created a real-world character with an intensely human voice.

“With unflinching authenticity and intelligent compassion, Barry North has created…a first-person narrator we can respect as we recognize she is too fine for the grimy fate that binds her,” Smith said. “In this story, every detail of both style and content carries conviction and compelling reality.”

North has no formal training in writing but he calls his craft “the greatest voyage of discovery on the planet.”

Despite only becoming a published author during his retirement, North said he has written poetry throughout his life to pass the time.

“I’ve always been interested in writing, but I would write poems periodically while I was working and I really didn’t know what to do with them,” he said. “Once I retired I devoted more time to it and started sending my work out more regularly, and I’ve had some pretty good success.”

As the winner of the 2009 Long Story Contest International, North had his work published in a chapbook by White Eagle Coffee Store Press. He has received national recognition for his most recent awards, including being listed in “Poets and Writers Magazine.”

He chose his son-in-law, Corey Granier of Des Allemands, to do the artwork for the cover of the chapbook.

North lives in Hahnville with his wife, Diane. His previous work has also made him a finalist in the 2010 Astounding Beauty Ruffian Poetry Chapbook Award Competition and he has been published in well-known literary magazines, such as “Ancient Paths,” “Axe Factory Review,” “Chiron Review,” “Ginosko Literary Journal,” “Green Hills Literary Lantern,” “Pegasus” and “The Louisiana Review.”

For now, North plans to continue writing poetry and short stories, but does have dreams to one day work on a bigger project.

“I would like to perhaps write a novel one day,” he said. “It’s just a very big commitment when you’re first getting started in this field, but I would one day like to do it.”

“Along the Highway” is available for purchase for $6.95 including postage from WECSP, P.O. Box 383, Fox River Grove, IL 60021. For more information e-mail WECSPress@aol.com or call (847)639-9200.