It has been 20 years of great stories, emerging writers and plot twists.
Now celebrating its 20th year, UBC’s 2018 Okanagan Short Story Contest has doubled the prize money and attracted close to 100 entries from budding B.C. authors.
With $1,800 and publication in subTerrain magazine at stake, the names of the final four winners will be announced at the contest finale. The top four writers will be invited to read an excerpt from their winning story April 16 in Kelowna.
“UBC’s Okanagan Short Story Contest is an annual competition, open to fiction writers in the Southern Interior of British Columbia: east of Hope, west of the Alberta border, north of the US border and south of Williams Lake,” said Patty Wellborn, assistant communications coordinator, in a release.
The first-place author will net $1,000, second $400 and third $200. The first-place winning author will also have their story published in subTerrain magazine.
“This year is the inaugural year for high-school students to participate and there is an additional $200 prize for the top short story written by a high-school student,” Wellborn said.
Winning submissions will be selected by past contest winner and current Thompson Rivers University writing professor Karen Hofmann, who will announce the final four writers at the April 16 event.
Adult shortlisted authors include Lake Country’s Victoria Alvarez, Revelstoke’s Kale Bajowsky, Summerland’s Alison Braid, Canoe’s Serena Caner, Vernon’s Colette Langlois, Kelowna’s Brittni MacKenzi-Dale, Lake Country’s Samantha Macpherson, Oyama’s Angelika Offenwanger, Kelowna’s Kazim Sherazee and Kelowna’s Leah Todd.
High school shortlisted authors include Bethany Pardoe of LV Rogers Secondary, Finn Tobin of Mount Boucherie Secondary School and Anna Vajda of Heritage Christian Online School.
The free, one-hour public event takes place April 16 at the Okanagan Regional Library, downtown Kelowna, 1380 Ellis St., starting at 6:30 p.m.
The Okanagan Short Story Contest is organized by UBC Okanagan’s Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies and co-sponsored by the Kelowna Capital News, the Central Okanagan Foundation, the Amber Webb-Bowerman Memorial Foundation and subTerrain magazine.
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