Established in 1993 in honour of the Union’s 20th anniversary, the Short Prose Competition for Emerging Writers aims to discover, encourage, and promote new writers of short prose in order to provide opportunity and exposure to developing writers.

A $2,500 prize is awarded to a Canadian writer for the best piece of unpublished prose of up to 2,500 words in the English language. The Union submits the winning entry and those of the eleven other finalists to three Canadian magazines for consideration. In addition, the winning and finalist entries receive feedback on their submissions. 

PRIZE

$2,500 for the winning entry, and the entries of the winner and finalists will be submitted to three Canadian magazines.

JURY

The jury for the 2020 Short Prose Competition for Emerging Writers is Janet Barkhouse, Jacqueline Guest, and Naben Ruthnum.

ELIGIBILITY

• Original, unpublished fiction or nonfiction up to 2,500 words in the English language.
• Writers who have had no more than one book published (traditionally or self-published) in any genre and who are not currently under contract for a second book.
• Writers not published in book format are also eligible.
• Writers must be Canadian citizens or permanent residents of Canada.

HOW TO SUBMIT

Entries should be typed, double-spaced, in a clear twelve-point font, and the pages numbered on 8.5″ x 11″ pages, saved as either a Word document or PDF.

• This competition is judged anonymously. Ensure your entry does not include your name or other identifying information (other than the title).
• Submission fee: $29 per entry. Multiple entries are accepted. 
• Payment will be made online on Submittable when uploading your entry. 
• Deadline: February 14, 2020, 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time.

See the website to submit: https://www.writersunion.ca/short-prose-competition