"Here we are, trapped in the amber of this moment. There is no why."
The votes have all been counted, and Kurt Vonnegut is officially the winner of our inaugural Drunk Monkeys Writers Tournament. Your votes helped to crown Vonnegut the champion, out of 64 different writers and poets. His road to the championship ran through Jorge Luis Borges, William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Steinbeck, George Orwell, and finally, William Shakespeare.
So, Vonnegut had no easy path to victory, but aside from close match-ups with Fitzgerald and Shakespeare, he breezed through the tournament. There's a certain loyalty that comes from reading Vonnegut, a certain bleakly hilarious worldview that he tapped into at the dawn of the Space Age that continues to resonate with today's readers.
Vonnegut's victory over Shakespeare, in particular, signifies a kind of literary sea change. Shakespeare's characters may have set the template for how we think of humanity, but Vonnegut's wry, sardonic tone has changed how we view our modern, corporate, technological age.
In recognition of his victory, Vonnegut will be retired from all future competitions, and each future winner will receive the Vonnegut Trophy. Thank you to all who voted and shared the voting pages through social media. We understand that competitions like this are subjective, but we've enjoyed the conversations started through the tournament process, and we hope that you have as well.
See you next year!