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Announcing: EVENT’s 2017 Non-Fiction Contest Shortlist

By Event Mags / August 28, 2017

Here it is: EVENT’s contest shortlist! Congratulations to these talented twelve writers, and our sincere thanks to the 136 writers who submitted work. Winners will be announced here on EVENT’s website on September 8!

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Subscribe now and receive the Non-Fiction Contest Issue!

Students Respond: Poems by Janette Fecteau

Back-to-School Subscription Deal

Current Issue: 55/2

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🍂 EVENT 55/2 is here! Have you received your copy

🍂 EVENT 55/2 is here! Have you received your copy yet?

Our fall issue features poetry by Joseph Dandurand, Jen Currin, Tolu Oloruntoba, Tom Wayman, Erin Wilson and more. Plus, fiction by Caty Janze, Molly McCarron and Fejiro Okifo; non-fiction by Hilary Dean, Jaime Forsythe and Shelley Wood; and reviews of new fiction and poetry.

Pick up a copy or subscribe for a year of great new writing on our new website!

Good news: There's still time to submit to Our 202

Good news: There's still time to submit to Our 2026 Creative Non-Fiction Contest! The contest deadline has been extended to November 1! ✏️

Still stuck on what to submit? Fill in the blanks! The best stories come from real life.

Submit your work for a chance to win $1,500, $1,000, or $500, plus publication in EVENT.

Find contest details and submit through the link in our bio.

#CreativeNonFiction #WritingPrompts #EVENTMagazine #WritingContest #Litmag

Good news for procrastinators—and perfectionists.

Good news for procrastinators—and perfectionists. 💫

EVENT’s 2026 Creative Non-Fiction Contest deadline has been extended to November 1.

There’s still time to submit your creative non-fiction work for a chance to win a share of $3,000 in prizes and publication in EVENT.

Find the contest details through the link in our bio! We can't wait to read your work!

STUDENTS! 📚️ EVENT’s 2026 Non-Fiction Contest ha

STUDENTS! 📚️

EVENT’s 2026 Non-Fiction Contest has a discounted student entry rate!

Students can enter for just $19.95, and every entry includes a one-year subscription (or renewal) to EVENT. If you’re a student working on creative nonfiction, memoir, or personal essay, we’d love to read your work.

Not a student? Send this to a writer you know who is, or share it with an instructor, writing group, or creative writing program.

Enter by October 15 to be considered for $3,000 in prizes and publication in EVENT. Find the full contest guidelines and submit through the link in our bio.

Seeking some non-fiction inspiration ahead of our

Seeking some non-fiction inspiration ahead of our contest deadline? Read the 2025 Non-Fiction Contest Winners in EVENT 55/1.

MEREDITH QUARTERMAIN is the author of Lullabies in the Real World (NeWest,
2020), Things Musing (above/ground, 2025) and several other books including poetry, short prose and novels. Her debut collection Vancouver Walking (NeWest, 2005) won the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize.

Our 2026 Non-Fiction Contest is open until October 15th. Find the submission guidelines through the link in our bio.

Thank you to everyone who stopped by our table at

Thank you to everyone who stopped by our table at Word Vancouver!

We asked readers and writers to get personal with creative nonfiction, and here’s some of what you had to say.

If you couldn't make it then, fill in the blank in the last slide and share your answer in the comments or on your story!

And if your answer has you thinking there might be an essay in you, our 2026 Creative Non-Fiction Contest is open until October 15.

Creative Non-Fiction Tip: Use something small, ord

Creative Non-Fiction Tip: Use something small, ordinary, or unexpected to tell a larger truth.

There is still time to submit to our 2026 Creative Non-Fiction Contest. Every entry include a one-year subscription to EVENT, with a discounted rate for students, now is great time to send us your work.

Find the contest guidelines and submit through the link in our bio.

New on the Blog 🐚 “A Ripple or a Faint Sparkle”: A

New on the Blog 🐚 “A Ripple or a Faint Sparkle”: An Interview with Poet and EVENT Reading Service Editor gillian-harding russell

gillian harding-russell joins us to discuss poetic form, revision, inspiration, and the relationship between writing and editing poetry in her work with poets through EVENT's Reading Service.

GILLIAN HARDING-RUSSELL is a poet, editor and reviewer. She has published five poetry books and a new collection, Lift the Ear of the Nautilus (Turnstone), is forthcoming. Also, her eighth chapbook A Handle on Things (The Alfred Gustav Press) was published in summer 2026. She has had her poems short-listed three times for Exile’s Gwendolyn MacEwen chapbook award, and in 2016, the sequence “Making Sense” was chosen as Best Suite by a poet at any time in her career. Her poems have been anthologized in 23 poetry collections and published in journals across Canada. She received an MA from McGill and a PhD from the University of Saskatchewan, completing her doctoral dissertation on postmodern Canadian poetry. gillian is also the poetry editor of EVENT’s popular Reading Service for Writers.

Read the full interview on our blog.

New on the EVENT Blog 🌸 Read an excerpt of "Becaus

New on the EVENT Blog 🌸 Read an excerpt of "Because" by Sarah Wolfson

SARAH WOLFSON is the author of A Common Name for Everything (Green Writers Press, 2019), which won the A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry. Originally from Vermont, she is a longtime resident of Montreal, where she teaches at McGill University.

Click the link in our bio to read the full excerpt, then find two complete poems in EVENT 55/1.

📚️ What can a creative non-fiction essay be? It

📚️ What can a creative non-fiction essay be?

It may be true, but it can still borrow from the tools of fiction.

There's less than a month to submit to our 2026 Creative Non-Fiction Contest. Every entry include a one-year subscription to EVENT, with a discounted rate for students, now is great time to send us your work.

Find the contest guidelines and submit through the link in our bio.

There is one month left to submit to our 2026 Non-

There is one month left to submit to our 2026 Non-Fiction Contest! Don't forget to submit your work by October 15th.

Did you know, we offer deeply discounted contest entry fees and one-year subscriptions to all post-secondary students! Are you are completing a creative writing MFA or an undergraduate student trying your hand at submitting for the first time? Submit to EVENT’s annual CNF contest for just $19.95. That’s a full $15 off our standard contest entry fee and includes a one-year subscription to EVENT.

Find the contest details and submit through the link in our bio.

Our friends at Room need your support! Canada's o

Our friends at Room need your support!

Canada's oldest feminist literary magazine is urgently fundraising to keep its doors open. For over 50 years, Room has made space for writers and artists of marginalized genders, with a particular focus on BIPOC, queer, and disabled voices.

At EVENT, we know how much work goes into keeping an independent literary magazine running, and how much these spaces mean to the writers and readers who find community through them.

Room's fundraiser will help pay outstanding fees and reduce its deficit so the team can work toward a sustainable future. If you're able, please consider supporting the fundraiser or sharing to help spread the word.

Find more information about the fundraiser @roommagazine

What can a creative non-fiction essay be? Sometim

What can a creative non-fiction essay be?

Sometimes, one image, object, question, or metaphor can hold the whole piece together. A strong through line can connect scenes that seem unrelated at first and give the essay another layer of meaning that reaches beyond strictly personal experience for some universal or deeper meaning. Be a lens toward something bigger.

The key is restraint: let the metaphor do some work without asking trying to force it to do everything.

More creative non-fiction tips are on the way as we count down to EVENT's 2026 Non-Fiction Contest deadline on October 15. Find the full guidelines and submit through the link in our bio.

We will be exhibiting at Word Vancouver on Septemb

We will be exhibiting at Word Vancouver on September 19!

Stop by to chat with our team, learn more about the magazine, and pick up a copy of EVENT in person.

We're looking forward to spending the day with Vancouver's literary community. Come say hello if you're there!

What can a creative non-fiction essay be? It can

What can a creative non-fiction essay be?

It can jump through time, work in fragments, or braid together different formats. If you are struggling to make sense of a story sometimes changing the shape can help you figure out what the story is really about.

Our 2026 Non-Fiction Contest is open until October 15, with $3,000 in total prizes and publication in EVENT for all three winners. Find the full guidelines and submit through the link in our bio.

More writing tips are on the way. In the meantime, share your favourite tip or writing exercise.

Spotted EVENT in the wild, and in very good compan

Spotted EVENT in the wild, and in very good company. 📚️

This photo was taken at Indigo, Robson Street in Vancouver, where you can find EVENT alongside other literary magazines.

Get a copy at select newsstands and Chapters Indigo locations, or order the latest issue directly from our website.

Thinking about submitting to our 2026 Non-Fiction

Thinking about submitting to our 2026 Non-Fiction Contest? Our current issue, EVENT 55/1, includes the three winning essays from last year's contest, as well as Vinh Nguyen's judges essay.

Issues of EVENT are available in print and digital editions. Sign up for a digital subscription to download the current issue right away and receive the rest of the year in your inbox! Only $18.95 for 1 year of the best new poetry and prose, Subscribe through the link in bio.

You may have seen my face pop up on EVENT's feed l

You may have seen my face pop up on EVENT's feed lately, so I thought I should introduce myself!

I'm Olivia MacDonald, EVENT's Magazine Intern this summer. I'm currently completing a Master of Publishing at Simon Fraser University and am also co-editor-in-chief of Bitter Magazine.

As EVENT's intern, I get to work on a little bit of everything that goes into putting a literary magazine together, from social media and newsletters, to interviews and editorial meetings!

If there's anything you've ever wondered about how EVENT is made or what happens behind the scenes, I'd love to share more!

New on the EVENT Blog 🌱 Read a preview of "The Kri

New on the EVENT Blog 🌱 Read a preview of "The Krishna of Kelowna" by Vivek Sharma

VIVEK SHARMA is a poet from the foothills of the Himalayas who dwells in the myths of the Mahabharata and whose peripatetic lines chronicle love, loneliness, elephant gods as well as the mechanics of flipping burgers at many McDonald’s stores across Canada.

Click the link in our bio to read the full excerpt from the poem, then find two complete poems in EVENT 55/1.

Have a writing prompt or tip that always gets you

Have a writing prompt or tip that always gets you unstuck? Share your favourite in the comments so other writers can give it a try.

And if your draft turns into something you want to send out, EVENT’s 2026 Non-Fiction Contest is open until October 15, with $3,000 in total prizes and publication in EVENT for all three winners.

Find the full contest guidelines through the link in our bio.

#CreativeNonfiction #CreativeWriting #WritingPrompt #EVENTmagazine #WritingContest

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