CAZENOVIA — Former Cazenovia resident Jadi Campbell recently announced that the title story of her fiction anthology “The Trail Back Out” was named a quarterfinalist in the 2021 ScreenCraft Cinematic Short Story Competition.
The anthology features 10 stories, many of which were written during the coronavirus lockdown.
According to Campbell, the characters in each story are trying to make sense of different events.
“They are all looking for the trail back out,” she said in Nov. 2020. “Whether during the upheaval of the last century or the present COVID-19 crisis, each story guides the reader through a labyrinth of questions about how to live and love.”
The title story takes place on the back trails at Cranberry Lake in the Adirondacks.
Campbell said she had the plot for the story in her head for many years.
“I imagined two strangers meeting during a storm on a back trail in the Adirondacks,” she said. “The storm means they share shelter in a lean-to together, and over the course of several days they share [their] life stories. The two men, Ken and Malcolm, are very similar in looks and backgrounds . . . I loved the setting and the premise, but I wasn’t quite ready to write their tale. Something was missing. Then the pandemic hit, and at last I had all the elements for a really good story.”
ScreenCraft is a screenwriting consultancy and competition platform dedicated to helping screenwriters and filmmakers succeed.
The quarterfinalists of the cinematic short story competition were selected from nearly 1,500 submissions.
The true and fictional stories were judged based on their potential to be adapted for the screen in the form of film, television series or made-for-TV movies for example.
“The ScreenCraft competition is run by a boutique consulting agency that supplies insider access to development executives for television and film studios,” Campbell explained. “The [entries] are judged by a team of script writers, the managing editor of Granta Magazine, and executives responsible for developing film projects.”
The author said she was stunned to learn that her submission had been chosen.
“To have my story selected for the longlist seemed impossible,” said Campbell. “I chose to title the book after this story, and it’s the tale I end the book with. It feels even more unbelievable because this is now the second honor the book has received . . . Even getting longlisted for an award is so important to writers, especially now. The market is flooded with self-published authors. Anything that makes your books stand out is always great.”
Last fall, “The Trail Back Out” story collection was named a finalist for the 2020 “Best Book” award in the category of fiction anthologies.
Sponsored by American Book Fest, the 2020 contest received over 2,000 entries, which were narrowed down to over 400 winners and finalists in over 90 categories.
Awards were presented for titles published in 2018-2020 based on design, content and overall appeal.
Past winners include Amy Tan, George Saunders, Clive Barker and Ann Lamott.
According to Campbell, “The Trail Back Out” was the only self-published book in its category.
Campbell graduated from Cazenovia High School in 1975. Although she has lived in Germany for the past 28 years, she continues to attend reunions when possible.
The author holds a bachelor of art in English literature from the Honors College of the University of Oregon.
The “Trail Back Out” is Campbell’s fourth book.
She published her first book, “Broken In: A Novel in Stories,” in 2012. Her second and third novels, “Tsunami Cowboys” and “Grounded,” followed in 2014 and 2016, respectively.
In 2019, Tsunami Cowboys was longlisted for the ScreenCraft Cinematic Book Competition.
For more information on Campbell and her work, visit jadicampbell.com.
To learn more about ScreenCraft, visit screencraft.org.
