I'm going to win a contest

 From the New Yorker, no less, and it's all because I recognized all these book covers correctly and submitted my entry earliest. 

The theme was messages.  The covers are -- from the top left, going clockwise:  Raymond Carver, Where I'm Calling From  ; Message in a Bottle, Nicholas Sparks ; Last Call, Daniel Okren; and Call of the Wild, Jack London

The theme was messages and calls, per the controversy over Clarence Thomas' wife derp derp derp derp derp....

Recognized Raymond Carver right away -- that's the cover where he's got this ravenous come-hither glare, suggesting the photograph was snapped by either Tess Hadley or by a big bottle of gin.  Read the collection, loved Carver at one point, then I read this thesis decrying him as a high-brow peddler of melodrama, and that sort of colored how I read him from then on, because it was an accurate assessment, especially in his later work.  Now I only like that story about the fat guy who refers to himself as "we."  What an ending to that story! 

Saw the wolves, Jack London, Call of the Wild, easy enough.  Two down. 

Googled "orkent" and "message", and I was surprised on my first try to find a positive match in Daniel Orken.  Never heard of him, never heard of his book.

That left the sailboat.  I'm not sure how exactly I figured out that it was Message in a Bottle.  I think I was racking my brain for stuff with call and message in the title, and I just got lucky. 

Hoping to hear from the New Yorker any time now to confirm my winning entry.  Looking forward to reading the prize, a copy of the new collection of sports writing. 

By the way, look at all the rules, man.  They take this blog contest way seriously.