Have you ever read a book and stopped at the very first sentence, wondering how it ever got published? We all know what good writing looks like, but sometimes, the opposite is even more memorable. There’s a special kind of magic in a sentence that is so clunky, so confusing, or so over-the-top that it becomes legendary.

For decades, a contest has celebrated this very idea. It's a place where writers try their best to craft the absolute worst opening line for a novel. The goal is not to write well, but to write so badly that it makes people laugh, cringe, or simply shake their heads in disbelief. The 2022 entries certainly did not disappoint.