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.
