Sue Fondrie of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, won the 2011 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest for her sentence comparing forgotten memories to dead sparrows, said San Jose State University Prof Scott Rice. The contestant asks writers to submit the worst possible opening sentences to imaginary novels.
Fondrie wrote: 'Cheryl's mind turned like the vanes of a wind-powered turbine, chopping her sparrow-like thoughts into bloody pieces that fell onto a growing pile of forgotten memories.'"
Hat tips to Lawrence Person and Jeff Meyerson. Lawrence, a fellow blogger and occasional commenter here, received a dishonorable mention.