Manolo says, at the last the Manolo and his judges, the magnificent Miss Meghan Cleary and the wonderful Jane Eldershw, they have selected the following winners and runners up to the Manolo’s Super Fantastic Essay Contest.

And now, it is the great pleasure of the Manolo to announce that the Super Fantastic Grand Prize First Place Winner of the Manolo’s Super Fantiastic Essay Contest it is the Valeria Fate of the Munster, Indiana!

The Valeria she submitted this magnificent homage to the Coleridge and the Manolo’s Shoe Blog.

THE PLEASURE DOME OF MANOLO
(A Lost Poem of Samuel Taylor Coleridge)

In cyberspace, Manolo did
A pleasure dome of shoes decree;
Where girls of well-turned ankle ran
In Kenneth Cole boots of calf and tan
Through fields of Will’s Fancy.
There Cynthia Rowleys strewn o’er the ground
With Mary Jane straps were girdled round;
And Isaac Mizrahis bright with crystal bling,
And rhinestone blossoms on Claudia Ciuti toes;
Suede Jimmy Choos to make a sad heart sing,
And Prada sandals, green as the leaves of a rose.

But oh! The hall of horrors one must pass
To reach the land of the style and taste–
Cheap plastic flipflops! Ugly and crass,
Birkenstocks that look like the ass,
Uggs fashioned from the steaming toxic waste!
And in this chasm, with cruel malice seething,
As if in super-tight vinyl pants he were breathing,
Demon Lagerfeld lingers, and lurks, and laughs.
Beneath his foul bloviating bursts
Echo the cries of the deluded few:
“But these Crocs were cheap, and comfortable too!”
This tasteless tumult Manolo heard from far,
And cried out, “Ayyyyy! This, it means the war!”
He then brought forth the dome of foot fashion pleasure,
With Beverly Feldmans making up the walls;
For flooring, fair Coach wedges beyond measure,
And Miu Miu ceilings for its marbled halls.
Ah, how it did allure the style-starved hordes,
This pleasure dome of Blahnik, Delman, Kors!

Fore’er shall I linger in this pleasure dome–
Caovillas like fire! Cole Haans, cool as ice!–
And if the Lagerfeld I see there,
Shall throw a Pucci and shout, “Beware!”
He shall not besmirch our shoeland fair!
Praise the Manolo, praise him twice,
Standing in Zanotti wedges tall;
For he hath made for one and all
A super fantastic paradise.

This entry it was by far the favorite of the Miss Meghan and was easily in the top three of the Manolo and the Jane Eldershaw. It is both remarkably funny and very well written. It is easy to write the parody of the poem. But it is most difficult to write the parody of the poem that stands up as well to the original as this one does.

The Super Fantastic Second Place Winner of the Manolo’s Super Fantastic Essay Contest it is the Alicia DiDonato, of the Cambridge, Massachusetts for her marvolous short story, Hemingway Loves Shoes. (Click on the Alicia’s name to read her story.)

The Jane Eldershaw had this to say about the entry of the Alicia, “Very original, very stylish, and over all, superfantastic — for me it is everything the Manolo was looking for. And doesn’t this encapsulate what all of us shoe-aholics, deep down, believe? That everyone — our audience, our friends, the people who admire us — may have known better women, but, by God, none with such wonderful shoes!”

The Super Fantastic Third Place Winner of the Manolo’s Super Fantastic Essay Contest it is the Christine Stone of the Marietta, Georgia. The Christine she submitted the very funny “Going Out of Business Sale!”, this story that made the Manolo laugh, and it reminded him of the importance of the shoes in the fairy tales.

The Manolo he is also awarding the prizes to the Super Fantastic Runners Up:

Erin Carstens of the Seattle, WA, for the essay “I Shoes: The Manifesto”

Charlotte Allen, of the Washington, District of the Columbia, for “Torment”.

Sarah Hasler of Oregon for the “Shoe Freak”

Lisa Camp of the Sugar Land, Texas submitted the essay “Texas Shoe Fog”.

Laura Kluvo wrote the wonderful poem, “A Pagent Notice Appears in the Walk-in Closet”

Brenda J. Viola of the Springfield, Pennsylvania for her essay “Why I Love The Shoes”.

Tara Helfman of New Haven, Connecticut for the “Back to School Special”

All of these entries they were very strong, and they made the chosing of the winners most difficult indeed.

The Manolo he is also giving away the special Super Fantastic Knitters Prize for the peoples who wrote about the knitting or crocheting or identified themselves as the knitters or the fiber artists. The prize it is the special package of the yarns from the nice peoples at the Lion Brands and the Lion Brands blog, the Kloseknit.

And this prize, it goes to the knitter, Danielle Schoonover for “I’ll Never Forget”

Finally, the Manolo he must thank the many, many wonderful people and companies who have supported this contest:

The Shoebuy.com, and their blog.

The Zappos.

The Shoes.com.

The beautiful Beverly Feldman.

The wonderful Magnolia Shoes.

The hilarious cartoonist, the Donna Barstow.

The Creative Queen of the Bootlegs.

The witty Shoelover of the Clear Shoe Boxes

The Authors, Joan DeJean, the Virginia Postrel, the Manolo’s good friend the Kim, and the chef Douglas Psaltis and his brother the Michael Psaltis.

Finally, the Manolo must express his most profound gratitude to the Jane Eldershaw and Miss Meghan Cleary for their help in the judging of the Manolo’s contest.

You, the winners and the judges and the sponsors and the readers , you are all indeed most super fantastic!