2017 Contest Winners

 

TNQ’s 2017 Contest Winners — Fiction, Poetry, and Personal Essay

 

The New Quarterly editors and judges made delightfully difficult decisions to determine the winners of this year’s three writing contests.

 

“We were excited to see such a range of stories where the craft of writing clearly mattered to the writer,” says Pamela Mulloy, TNQ editor and a judge of the Peter Hinchcliffe Fiction Award.

 

“These are anxious times, something that was reflected in the poems submitted this year, yet the overall tone was one of consolation and uplift,” says Kim Jernigan, former TNQ editor and a judge of the Nick Blatchford Occasional Verse.

 

“Personal essays demand risk,” says Susan Scott, TNQ’s lead nonfiction editor and a judge of the Edna Staebler Personal Essay. “It’s a form that challenges writers to use their own experience to bore into an issue. A good essay demands head and heart from the writer, and from readers, too.”

 

TNQ congratulates and applauds these 2017 contest winners:

 

Peter Hinchcliffe Fiction Award

First prize ($1,000):

Shannon Blake, “The Mataram Miracle”

 

Runners-up (tie):

Michelle Syba, “End Times”

Martha Wilson, “They Will Go to Loch Ness”

 

Honourable Mentions:

Mary Thaler, “Pet-Sitting in Iqaluit”

David Huebert, “Six Six Two Fifty”

Sara Mang, “Art of Camouflage”

 

Nick Blatchford Occasional Verse

First prize ($1,000):

Fiona Tinwei Lam, “Test”

 

Second prize ($500):

Joanne Epp, “Festival”

 

Runners-up ($100 each):

Rhonda Collis, “Elevation”

Cornelia Hoogland, “River Rhône”

Joseph Kidney, “Deer Lake on Christmas Afternoon”

Brenda Leifso, “3 o’clock, October”

Anne Marie Todkill, “November, Stormont County”

 

Honourable Mentions:

Judy Barlow, “Pace”

dee Hobsbawn-Smith, “Oranges & Pomegranates 2”

Fiona Tinwei Lam, “Ode to the Plate”

 

Edna Staebler Personal Essay

First prize ($1,000):

Susan Olding, “A Different River”

 

Runner-up:

Michelle Kaeser, “This is a Love Story”

 

Honourable Mentions:

Marion Agnew, “Atomic Tangerine”

Christopher A. Taylor, “Before You Were Born”

Anne Marie Todkill, “Difficult Light”

Anne Marie Todkill, “Plain Sight”

Isabella Wang, “Shortcomings of a Juvenile”

 

First prize winners Shannon Blake, Fiona Tinwei Lam, and Susan Olding have each been awarded $1,000 and invited to read excerpts from their winning submission on opening night of the Wild Writers Literary Festival, November 3 to 5, 2017 in Waterloo, Ontario. In addition, “The Mataram Miracle”,” “Test,” and “A Different River” will be published in the Fall 2017 issue of The New Quarterly.

 

To find out more about the sixth annual Wild Writers Literary Festival, which includes writers discussing the writing craft, masterclasses, workshops, literary panels, and much more, please visit tnq.ca/wildwriters.

The Peter Hinchcliffe Fiction Award is for a work of short fiction by a writer in the early stages—someone who has not yet published a novel or story collection.

The Nick Blatchford Occasional Verse is for poems written in response to an occasion, personal or public—poems that make something of an occasion, or simply mark one.

The Edna Staebler Personal Essay is for essays of any length, on any topic, in which the writer’s personal engagement with the topic provides the frame or through-line.

TNQ editors and contest judges thank everyone who submitted to our three writing contests. The 2018 deadlines are: February 28 for the Nick Blatchford Occasional Verse, March 28 for the Edna Staebler Personal Essay, and May 28 for the Peter Hinchcliffe Fiction Award. The opening date for 2018 submissions for all three contests is September 1, 2017.

Head over to our Contests Page for more information about our contests.