contest

EVENT Annual Non-Fiction Contest

Update!

Contest deadline extended to April 22, 2013.

Now it’s even easier to submit your non-fiction stories and essays: You can email them to event@douglascollege.ca (Subject: Non-Fiction Contest Entry) and pay the entry fee via our Online Sales page (scroll down to the “Annual Non-Fiction Contest Entry Fee” button near the bottom). The rest of the details are below.

2013 Contest Details:

Here you’ll find everything you need to know to enter our annual Creative Non-Fiction Contest. To get a feel for what we like to publish, pick up a previous copy of EVENT. Otherwise, grab a pen, some paper—okay fine, grab your computer—and prepare to write!

Don’t forget to check out last year’s contest winners and short-listed entrants!

The genre: Creative Non-Fiction.

The prize: $1,500 in prizes plus publication in EVENT. EVENT reserves the right to award the prize money as it sees fit (eg.  two prizes valued at $750, three at $500, or one at $1000 and one at $500, etc) should the judge so decide. Published entries will be paid our standard publication payment in addition to any prize money.

The cost: $34.95 per entry, includes a one-year subscription to EVENT.

The judge: Russell Wangersky

Russell Wangersky’s most recent novel, The Glass Harmonica, won the 2010 BMO Winterset Award and was longlisted for the ReLit Awards. His previous book, Burning Down the House, won non-fiction awards from both coasts, as well as the Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction. The Hour of Bad Decisions was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize. Wangersky lives and works in St. John’s, where he is an editor and columnist with the St. John’s Telegram. His new book, Whirl Away, is a collection of short stories, and has been nominated for the Giller prize.

The deadline: April 15, 2013

The requirements: must be creative non-fiction and must not exceed the 5,000-word limit. See Contest Rules (below) for more info.

The address: send your manuscript to

EVENT
Non-Fiction Contest
PO Box 2503, New Westminster, BC
V3L 5B2   Canada
Phone: 604-527-5293 Fax: 604-527-5095
Email: event@douglascollege.ca

Contest Rules

  • Preliminary judging is done by the Editor and assistants at EVENT
  • No previously published material, either in print or online.
  • No simultaneous submissions.
  • Do not identify yourself on the entry. Include a separate cover sheet with name, address, phone number / email, and title(s). Send to EVENT (see above address).
  • Make entry fee cheques or international money orders payable to EVENT. American and overseas entrants please pay in US dollars. Payment can also be made via our Online Sales Page (bottom of page) and PayPal.
  • Multiple entries are allowed; however, each entry must be accompanied by its own $34.95 entry fee.
  • If already subscribed to EVENT, you will receive a one-year extension.
  • Entries will not be returned.
  • If entrants wish feedback and commentary on manuscripts, please check out our Readers Service for Writers.
  • Douglas College students, employees and their immediate family members are not eligible to enter. Douglas College students may enter two years after completing courses at Douglas College.
  • Entries must be postmarked by April 15.
  • Contest results are posted on our website and through social media in August. The winning entries and judges essay are published in the December issue of EVENT.

Past Judges

Past judges include: Zsuzsi Gartner, Kevin Chong, Myrna Kostash, Andreas Schroeder, Sharon Butala, Tom Wayman, Di Brandt, Terry Glavin, Karen Connelly, Charles Montgomery, Lynn Coady, and Timothy Taylor.

2012 Non-Fiction Contest winning entries announced!

Ten manuscripts were chosen from 101 entries by EVENT’s Editor and assistants and sent without the writers’ names to Zsuzsi Gartner for final judging. EVENT would like to congratulate this year’s two winning entries:

‘We Were Punk Rockers’ by Livvy Black, Toronto, ON

‘The Decision’ by Mary B., Toronto, ON

You can read the two winning entries in our upcoming contest issue, EVENT 41/3, due out in January 2013.

The other shortlisted entries are:

‘The Dead in Georgetown’ by Paige Cooper, Calgary, AB

‘The Doctor Scott Journals’ by Trisha Cull, Victoria, BC

‘Where Poison Gets Ya’ by Chris Donahoe, Halifax, NS

‘Promo Girl’ by Katherine Fawcett, Pemberton, BC

‘Kestrel’ by Kirsten Madsen, Whitehorse, YT

‘Sadder Than You’ by Sigal Samuel, Vancouver, BC

‘The Grey Goose and Wild Turkey Years’ by Emily Walker, Vancouver, BC

‘Liquor Run, 1972’ by Terence Young, Victoria, BC

Thanks to those writers who sent manuscripts to us. We look forward to reading submissions for our 2013 Non-Fiction Contest next spring.