The Writers’ Union of Canada invites submissions to its 32nd annual Short Prose Competition for Emerging Writers. Unpublished works of fiction and nonfiction up to 2,500 words in English are eligible, and writers may submit multiple entries. A $2,500 prize will be awarded to the winner, and the entries of the winner and eleven finalists will be submitted to three Canadian magazines for consideration. The deadline for entries is February 17, 2025.
The Competition aims to discover, encourage, and promote new writers of short prose. “Over its thirty-year history, the Short Prose Competition has introduced Canadian readers to fresh voices from across the country,” says Chief Executive Officer John Degen. “It’s gratifying to watch those writers then grow in their careers.” Past finalists and winners have included such future luminaries as Shauna Singh Baldwin, Lewis DeSoto, Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer, Alexander MacLeod, and Amy Stuart. Visit writersunion.ca/short-prose-competition for full details and application form.
ABOUT THE JURY
The Union is proud to announce an esteemed group of jurors for the Competition:
Lisa Bird-Wilson is a Saskatchewan Métis and Cree writer whose most recent book, Probably Ruby (2021), is published internationally and was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction, for the Amazon First Novel Award, and won two Saskatchewan Book Awards including Book of the Year. Lisa is a founding member and chair of the Saskatchewan Aboriginal Writers Circle Inc (SAWCI)/ Ânskohk Indigenous Literature Festival. She lives in Saskatoon.
Dr. Jenna Butler (she/her) is an award-winning poet, essayist, teacher, and editor. She is the author of three books of poetry, an Arctic travelogue, and two collections of ecological essays. Her book Revery: A Year of Bees, essays about beekeeping, climate grief, and trauma recovery, was a finalist for the 2021 Governor General’s Literary Award in Non-Fiction and a longlisted title for CBC Canada Reads 2023. A retired professor of creative and environmental writing, Butler holds fellowships in environmental writing from the Spring Creek Project and Oregon Wild, the Yaddo Foundation, and Studio Faire. She works on the land between the off-grid organic farm she collaboratively runs in northern Treaty 6, Alberta, and the unceded traditional territories of the lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ peoples of southern Vancouver Island.
Jack Wang the author of We Two Alone, winner of 2020 Danuta Gleed Literary Award from The Writers’ Union of Canada for best debut collection in English, shortlisted for the 2021 Kobo Emerging Writer Prize, and longlisted for Canada Reads 2022. His fiction has been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize and longlisted for the Journey Prize. His forthcoming novel, The Riveter, received an Artist Fellowship in Fiction from the New York Foundation for the Arts and a Research and Creation Grant from the Canada Council for the Arts. He holds a BSc from the University of Toronto, an MFA in fiction from the University of Arizona, and a PhD in English from Florida State University. In 2014–15, he held the David T. K. Wong Creative Writing Fellowship at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England, and in 2022, he served as a writer-in-residence at Historic Joy Kogawa House in Vancouver. He is a professor in the Department of Writing at Ithaca College. Originally from Vancouver, he lives in Ithaca, New York, with his wife and their two daughters.
ABOUT THE AWARD
The Short Prose Competition is open to Canadian citizens and residents who have had no more than one book published and are not currently under contract for a second book. Authors not published in book format are also eligible. The entry fee is $29 per submission, and submissions are accepted online until 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time on February 17, 2025. The winner and finalists will be announced in late spring 2025. For complete rules and regulations, and to submit, visit writersunion.ca/short-prose-competition.
ABOUT THE WRITERS’ UNION OF CANADA
The Writers’ Union of Canada (TWUC) is the national organization of professionally published writers. TWUC was founded in 1973 to work with governments, publishers, booksellers, and readers to improve the conditions of Canadian writers. Now over 2,800 members strong, TWUC advocates on behalf of writers’ collective interests, and delivers value to members through advocacy, community, and information. TWUC believes in a thriving, diverse Canadian culture that values and supports writers.
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For additional information:
Kristina Cuenca, Program Manager
The Writers’ Union of Canada
kcuenca@writersunion.ca
DATE: December 6, 2024
