Cash prizes available in the 17th annual Okanagan Short Story Contest
Fiction writers are being encouraged to put their creative thinking caps on and get busy.
Entries are now being accepted for the Okanagan Short Story Contest. The annual contest has been running for 17 years, and is sponsored by UBC Okanagan’s Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies (FCCS), the Central Okanagan Foundation, and the Kelowna Capital News.
“This contest is a huge boost to emerging writers in the region,” says UBC creative writing instructor Mark Giles. “Former winners have gone on to create significant reputations for themselves. The two most recent novels by 2008 winner Ashley Little won BC Book Prizes this year and the 2012 winner, Karen Hofmann, just published her first novel.”
Winners enjoy a claim to fame and cash prizes. The first-place winner will receive $500, while the second- and third-place winners receive $200 and $100 respectively. The overall winner also has the opportunity to spend one week in a retreat at the Woodhaven Eco Culture Centre.
The Woodhaven Eco Culture Centre is located in a 3.5-hectare nature conservancy in Kelowna’s Mission area and is a part of an agreement between UBC, the Regional District of the Central Okanagan, and the FCCS. The FCCS manages a large heritage home with three self-contained apartments.
Marie Clements, UBC Okanagan’s 2015 Writer-in-Residence, will select the best three stories in the spring. The contest invites all southern interior writers east of Hope, west of the Alberta border, north of the American border and south of Williams Lake to submit their original unpublished works of fiction. The deadline for submissions is Thursday, January 15.
Stories ranging from 1,000 to 4,000 words are eligible; all entries must be original, unpublished works of fiction, submitted on 8 ½” by 11” plain white paper, double-spaced, and typed. There is no limit on the number of entries, but a $15 entry fee is required with each.
For more information, contact Mark Giles at 250-807-8035, or mark.giles@ubc.ca. Complete contest rules can be found at www.okstorycontest.org.
—30—
