Past Contest Winners

2016 Non-Fiction Contest Winners:

  • ‘So Long and Thanks for all the Fish’ by Maureen Bayless, Vancouver, BC
  • ‘Dark Spots’ by Caitlin Crawshaw, Edmonton, AB
  • ‘On Watch’ by Hilary Dean, Scarborough, ON

Read their winning stories in EVENT 45/3.

The other short-listed entries were:

  • The Reminiscence Effect’ by Nicole Boyce, Calgary, AB
  • ‘Love Story’ by Jane Campbell, Vancouver, BC
  • ‘How Touching’ by Clarissa Green, Vancouver, BC
  • ‘The Damned’ by Richard Kelly Kemick, Calgary, AB
  • ‘The Five Seasons of Grief’ by Laila Malik, Toronto, ON
  • ‘In Hiding’ by Dhana Musil, North Vancouver, BC
  • ‘The 21-lb Chinook Salmon’ by Kevin Shaw, London, ON
  • ‘Criminals’ by Madeline Sonik, Victoria, BC
  • ‘Notes from Molenbeek’ by Elaine van der Geld, Brussels, Belgium

Final Judge: Ayelet Tsabari

Ayelet Tsabari’s first book, The Best Place on Earth, won the 2015 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature and has been published internationally. In 2013, Ayelet was named as one of ten Canadian writers to watch by CBC and in 2014 she was awarded a Chalmers Arts Fellowship. Her non-fiction has won a National Magazine Award, a Western Magazine Award, and The New Quarterly‘s in-house Edna Staebler award. She is a graduate of the Creative Writing MFA Program at Guelph, and lives in Toronto, where she teaches creative writing at the University of Toronto.

2015 Non-Fiction Contest Winners:

  • ‘The Back Roads’ by Gena Ellett, New Westminster, BC
  • ‘The Wolf’ by Hilary Peach, Gabriola Island, BC

Read their winning stories in EVENT 44/3.

The other short-listed entries were:

  • ‘Good as Dead’ by Jane Campbell, Vancouver, BC
  • ‘Operation Release’ by Danielle Daniel, Hanmer, ON
  • ‘Don’t Quit Your Day Jobs’ by Eufemia Fantetti, Toronto, ON
  • ‘You Have a Beautiful Brain’ by Clara Kumagai, Vancouver, BC
  • ‘You, in Translation’ by Margaret Nowaczyk, Hamilton, ON
  • ‘Montreal, I Love You/Montreal, C’est Impossible’ by Julie Paul, Victoria, BC
  • ‘”So, Honey, How Were They Today?” Cold War in Berlin, 1965’ by H.C. Phelps, Sidney, BC
  • ‘Whitehorse to Kathmandu’ by Nadine Sander-Green, Kimberley, BC
  • ‘How to Play Trumpet in a Kimono’ by Erica Thorkelson, Vancouver, BC
  • ‘Soft in the Middle’ by Elizabeth Withey, Edmonton, AB

Final Judge: Andrew Westoll

ANDREW WESTOLL is an author, journalist and lecturer based in Toronto. His latest book, the best-selling The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary, won the 2012 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction, was a finalist for several other major book awards, and was named a book of the year by The Globe and Mail, Amazon.ca, Quill and Quire and CTV’s Canada AM. He currently teaches creative writing and literature at University of Toronto Scarborough.

2014 Non-Fiction Contest Winners:

  • ‘Vocational Rehabilitation’ by Hilary Dean, Scarborough, ON
  • ‘Whatever It Is’ by Zachary Hug, West Hollywood, CA, USA
  • ‘Twenty Miles Above the Limit’ by Alessandra Naccarato, Toronto, ON

Read their winning stories in EVENT 43/3.

The other short-listed entries were:

  • ‘Wire to the Sky’ by Miles Barclay, Surrey, BC
  • ‘Caught in the System: My Life in Education’ by Tanja Bartel, Pitt Meadows, BC
  • ‘Beirut Bombing’ by Tanya Bellehumeur-Allatt, Canton de Hatley, QC
  • ‘Cockroach Towers’ by Charlotte Breadner, Douro-Dummer, ON
  • ‘Nothing by Mouth’ by Cindy Matthews, Chesley, ON
  • ‘It Pays to Increase Your Word Power’ by Erin Soros, North Vancouver, BC
  • ‘The Heat Comes Early This Year’ by Brent van Staalduinen, Hamilton, ON

Final Judge: Deborah Campbell

DEBORAH CAMPBELL is the author of the non-fiction books This Heated Place and the forthcoming A Disappearance in Damascus. She has written for numerous magazines, including Harper’s, The Walrus, The Economist, New Scientist and Foreign Policy, and teaches creative non-fiction at UBC.

2013 Non-Fiction Contest Winners:

  • ‘CARE’ by Susan Buis, Knutsford, BC
  • ‘Inshallah’ by Jennifer Morgan, St. John’s, NL
  • ‘I Dream of My Standalone Quiznos’ by Benjamin Willems, Victoria, BC

Read their winning stories in EVENT 42/3.

The other short-listed entries were:

  • ‘Cat Face’ by Kayla Czaga, Vancouver, BC
  • ‘Remember This’ by Kathleen Kennedy, Mulmur, ON
  • ‘Elements’ by Fiona Tinwei Lam, Vancouver, BC
  • ‘The Day I Married Jesus’ by Cathy MacLean, Gibsons, BC
  • ‘Shopping Day’ by Leslie Sakata, Coquitlam, BC
  • ‘Charcoal’ by Souvankham Thammavongsa, Stouffville, ON

Final Judge: Russell Wangersky

RUSSELL WANGERSKY is a writer, editor and columnist from St. John’s, NL. His last book, Whirl Away (Dundurn, 2012), was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize.

2012 Non-Fiction Contest Winners:

  • ‘The Decision’ by Mary B. Valencia, Toronto, ON
  • ‘We Were Punk Rockers’ by Libby Zeleke, Toronto, ON

Read their winning stories in EVENT 41/3.

The other short-listed entries were:

  • ‘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

Final Judge: Zsuzsi Gartner

ZSUZSI GARTNER is the author of the critically acclaimed short fiction collections Better Living Through Plastic Explosives and All the Anxious Girls on Earth. She edited Darwin’s Bastards, was creative director of Vancouver Review’s Blueprint BC Fiction Series,  is an adjunct professor for UBC’s Optional-Residency MFA in Creative Writing program, and lives in Vancouver.

2011 Non-Fiction Contest Winners:

  • ‘Busted’ by Chris Donahoe, Halifax, NS
  • ‘Far Away Sick’ by Krissy Darch, Vancouver, BC

Read their winning stories in EVENT 40/3.

The other short-listed entries were:

  • ‘And Then (The Day I Almost Lost the Stories and Searched for the Meaning of Narrative)’ by Kari Lund-Teigen, Vancouver, BC
  • ‘Spawn’ by Andrea Bennett, Vancouver, BC
  • ‘Twelve Scenes in the Life of a Depressed Comic’ by Euphemia Fantetti, Toronto, ON
  • ‘Thirteen Snaps of my Nuclear Family’ by Terri Favro, Toronto, ON
  • ‘For Utah’ by Nancy Pincomb, Roberts Creek, BC
  • ‘Freak Show’ by Katherine Fawcett, Pemberton, BC

Final Judge: Kevin Chong

KEVIN CHONG is the author of two novels, Baroque-a-Nova and Beauty Plus Pity, a music memoir called Neil Young Nation, and a forthcoming non-fiction book on horse-racing. His writing has recently appeared in the Globe and Mail, the Walrus, the Toronto Star, Maclean’s, Chatelaine, FASHION, Vancouver Magazine and the CBC Arts website. He’s an editor at Joyland.ca and teaches Creative Writing at UBC.

2010 Non-Fiction Contest

Winners:
‘Dreamers’ by Jane Finlayson, Toronto, ON
—
‘Sleep, Mother and Child’ by Suzanne Nussey, Ottawa, ON
—
‘Issues of Skin’ by Chris Urquhart, Vancouver, BC
Judge:
Lynn Coady

Read the winning entries in EVENT 39/3.

2009 Non-Fiction Contest

Winners:
‘Alphabet Autobiografica’ by Eufemia Fantetti, Vancouver, BC
—
‘Asleep at the Wheel’ by Katherine Fawcett, Pemberton, BC
—
‘Victim’ by Ayelet Tsabari, Toronto, ON
Judge:
John Burns

Read the winning entries in EVENT 38/3.

2008 Non-Fiction Contest

Winners:
‘Approaching the Moon in a Stream: Reflections on Li Bai’ by David Janzen, Coaldale, AB
—
‘Wish You Were Here’ by C.T. Lawrence, Danville, PA
—
‘The Letter’ by J. Jill Robinson, Saskatoon, SK
Judge:
Timothy Taylor

Read the winning entries in EVENT 37/3.

2007 Non-Fiction Contest

Winners:
‘Pashtu, for Bird and Other Words that Hurt’ by Kanina Dawson, Consecon, ON
—
‘Glimpses of My Father’ by David Swanson, Gabriola Island, BC
—
‘You and What Army’ by Ayelet Tsabari, Vancouver, BC
Judge:
Keath Fraser

Read the winning entries in EVENT 36/3.

2006 Non-Fiction Contest

Winners:
‘Idylwylde Park’ by Sheree Ann Frappied, Edmonton, AB
—
‘Go Slowly’ by Sarah Turner, Vancouver, BC
Judge:
Charles Montgomery

Read the winning entries in EVENT 35/3.

2005 Non-Fiction Contest

Winners:
‘Sleeping with the Dead’ by Kaitlin Fontana, Jaffray, BC
—
‘Southeast Asian Snapshots’ by Robert Lake, Nepean, ON
—
‘Shadows’ by Madeline Sonik, Victoria, BC
Judge:
M.A.C. Farrant

Read the winning entries in EVENT 34/3.

2004 Non-Fiction Contest

Winners:
‘Unearthing Thia Foula’ by Vaia Barkas, Toronto, ON
—
‘The Griller’s Guide of Love and Loss’ by Nancy Mauro, Vancovuer, BC
—
‘At Lingyin Si’ by Susan Olding, Kingston, ON
Judge:
Ross Laird

Read the winning entries in EVENT 33/3.

2003 Non-Fiction Contest

Winners:
‘Country of Evil’ by Jancis M. Andrews, Sechelt, BC
—
‘Inside’ by Beth Jones, Toronto, ON
—
‘The Hotel Krasnapolsky’ by Andrew Westoll, Vancouver, BC
Judge:
Marni Jackson

Read the winning entries in EVENT 32/3.

2002 Non-Fiction Contest

Winners:
‘Limbo’ by Jacqueline Honnet, Calgary, AB
—
‘Typing TV’ by Diana Kiesners, Toronto, ON
—
‘First Passage’ by Madeline Sonik, Victoria, BC
Judge:
Ken Wiwa

Read the winning entries in EVENT 31/3.

2001 Non-Fiction Contest

Winners:
‘Familiar Patterns’ by Tara Gereaux, Vancouver, BC
—
‘Desolation and the Smell of Spruce Trees’ by Mark Mallet, Vancouver, BC
—
‘Icarus’s Sister’ by Cathy A. Ostlere, Calgary, AB
Judge:
Karen Connelly

Read the winning entries in EVENT 30/3.

2000 Non-Fiction Contest

Winners:
‘Homemade Pistol: A True Story of Addiction and Suicide’ by Gordon Cavenaile, Vancouver, BC
—
‘Bone Etchings & Blood Tattoos: Letters from Niger’ by Marcello Di Cintio, Calgary, BC
—
‘Cover All the Mirrors…’ by Ryszard Dubanski, Vancouver, BC
Judge:
Terry Glavin

Read the winning entries in EVENT 29/3.

1999 Non-Fiction Contest

Winners:
‘Boomer Buys House’ by Gordon Cavenaile, Vancouver, BC
—
‘The Eye of Ireland’ by Mark Anthony Jarman, Fredricton, NB
—
‘Eye of the Storm’ by Sheryl St. Germain, Ames, IA
Judge:
Di Brandt

Read the winning entries in EVENT 28/3.

1998 Non-Fiction Contest

Winners:
‘What You Learn’ by Ruth Krahn, Edmonton, AB
—
‘Acts of Love’ by Pat Krause, Regina, SK
—
‘On Life and Livestock’ by Margaret Thompson, Fort St. James, BC
Judge:
Tom Wayman

Read the winning entries in EVENT 27/3.

1997 Non-Fiction Contest

Winners:
‘The Myth of Being My Birth Parents’ by Margaret Foster, Vancouver, BC
—
‘Pathology’ by Susan Olding, Kingston, ON
—
‘Thief of Roses’ by Almeda Glenn Miller, Rossland, BC
Judge:
Sharon Butala

Read the winning entries in EVENT 26/3.

1996 Non-Fiction Contest

Winners:
‘Fear and Irony’ by Amadis Gaul
—
‘Water Sky’ by Peggy McCann, Halifax, NS
—
‘Junk’ by Jeff Walken
Judge:
George Galt

Read the winning entries in EVENT 25/3.

1995 Non-Fiction Contest

Winners:
‘Walking on the Ancestors’ by J.A. Hamilton, Vancouver, BC
—
‘Je Me Souviens’ by Alex Merrill, BC
—
‘Song for My Brother in the Earth’ by Jenifer Sutherland, Toronto, ON
Judge:
Janice Kulyk Keefer

Read the winning entries in EVENT 24/3.

1994 Non-Fiction Contest

Winners:
‘If a Mote’ by Roberta Rees, Calgary, AB
—
‘Fens, Bogs, and Muskeg Thoughts: Reconsidering Canada’s Boreal Wilderness’ by Rebecca Raglan, Bowen Island, BC
—
‘Fish, Vegetables, the Open Road’ by Rick Maddocks, Guelph, ON
Judge:
Stephen Hume

Read the winning entries in EVENT 23/3.

1993 Non-Fiction Contest

Winners:
‘Alibis’ by Sheila Delany, Burnaby, BC
—
‘Going the Wrong Way’ by Diana Kiesners, Toronto, ON
—
‘Hounded to the Coast’ by Bud Osborn, Vancouver, BC
Judge:
Heather Robertson

Read the winning entries in EVENT 22/3.

1992 Non-Fiction Contest

Winners:
‘The Transient Whale’ by Diana Atkinson, Nelson, BC
—
‘Remembering Karen’ by Zoe Landale, Ladner, BC
—
‘Finding Linette’ by Jill Robinson
Judge:
Andreas Schroeder

Read the winning entries in EVENT 21/3.

1991 Non-Fiction Contest

Winners:
‘Death Calls’ by Van Begamudré, Regina, SK
—
‘Roads to Freedom’ by Ann Diamond, Montreal, QC
—
‘The Luck of Baba’ by Claudia Gahlinger, Halifax, NS
Judge:
Susan Crean

Read the winning entries in EVENT 20/3.

1990 Non-Fiction Contest

Winners:
‘Love and Loading Bay’ by Lesley Choyce, Lawrencetown Beach, NS
—
‘Dale’ by W.D. Valgardson, Victoria, BC
—
‘Flying Dreams’ by Rita West, Ottawa, ON
Judge:
Eleanor Wachtel

Read the winning entries in EVENT 19/3.

1989 Non-Fiction Contest

Winners:
‘Nazis’ by Norbert Ruebsaat, Vancouver, BC
—
‘Leave Taking’ by Rita Moir
—
‘Identifying the Victim’ by Claudia Casper, Vancouver, BC
Judge:
Howard White

Read the winning entries in EVENT 18/3.

1988 Non-Fiction Contest

Winners:
‘Detox’ by Henna Haywood, Vancouver, BC
—
‘Nostrum’ by Stephen Osborne, Vancouver, BC
—
‘The Grower of Chrysanthemums’ by Alison Sinclair, Brookline, MA
Judge:
Myrna Kostash

Read the winning entries in EVENT 17/2.