High school division for writing contest

To celebrate the 20th year of its public debut in the Okanagan, UBC’s creative writing contest has undergone some dramatic changes—by adding new chapters.

New cash prizes. New category for high-school students. New story publisher. New sponsorships.

The Okanagan Short Story Contest is an annual, open competition for budding writers. While winners are announced in the spring, the submission deadline is Jan. 15, 2018.

Prize totals have doubled for 2018: First-place author nets $1,000, second $400 and third $200. The first-place winning author will also have their story published in subTerrain magazine.

There is an additional $200 prize for the top short story written by a high-school student.

The contest is open to fiction writers in the Southern Interior of British Columbia: east of Hope, west of the Alberta border, north of the U.S. border and south of Williams Lake.

Entries need to be an original piece of work, between 1,000 and 4,000 words (about 4 - 20 pages, typed, double-spaced).

Writers can submit as many entries as they choose, but there is a $15 entry fee for each story.

There is no charge for high school-students but they must include the name of their current high high school on their cover page. All proceeds go towards Creative Writing scholarships at UBC Okanagan.

Winning submissions will be selected by past winner and current Thompson Rivers University writing instructor Karen Hofmann, with the final four writers and top winner announced at a public event in March.

The Okanagan Short Story Contest is organized by UBCO’s Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies with co-sponsors Kelowna Capital News, the Central Okanagan Foundation, the Amber Webb-Bowerman Memorial Foundation, and subTerrain magazine.

Visit okstorycontest.org for a full list of rules, past winners and the origins of a great story 20 years in the making.

For additional questions contact Toby Wesenberg in FCCS at toby.wesenberg@ubc.ca.