UBCO offers big cash prize for short story competition

The 26th annual Okanagan Short Story Contest is open again for submissions.

The contest is open to all residents living in British Columbia’s Southern Interior and is offering a generous first place prize.

A top prize of $1,000, along with a one-week retreat at The Woodhaven Eco Culture Centre in Kelowna, is up for grabs for the best writer in the competition. Second and third prizes are also substantial, coming in at $400 and $200 respectively.

A secondary competition for high school students will be running for its fifth year, with a top prize of $200.

The competition was founded by UBCO professors Nancy Holmes and John Lent and this year will also be run by Creative Writing Lecturer and UBCO alumnus Andrea Routley.

“The perspectives and multiple knowledges of the diverse people of BC’s southern interior are important voices in Canada’s literary landscape, and I’m thrilled to be in a position to help draw attention to that,” Routley said in a UBCO press release.

The competition has proven to provide a launching pad for amateur Okanagan writer’s careers. With previous winners going on to to publish with Penguin Random House, Arsenal Pulp Press and NeWest Press, as well as multiple national and international magazines and journals.

This year, story submissions will be judged by UBCO’s creative writing faculty and Canadian author Shelley Wood.

Wood is a Kelowna resident and her debut novel, ‘The Quintland Sisters’, was a Canadian bestseller.

Entries for the competition must be between 1,000 and 4,000 words and writers are welcome to submit as many entries as they like.

It will cost $20 per entry for adults and free for high school students.

All proceedings will go towards UBCO’s creative writing scholarship as well as Indspire, an Indigenous organization that supports the education of First Nations, Inuit and Métis people.

The final deadline for the competition will be 11:59 p.m. on Feb. 2, 2024.

Winners of the contest will be announced in spring 2024 during UBCO’s Creative Studies Spring Festival, where finalists will be invited to read their work.

More information about the contest can be found on the UBCO website here.

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