2024 Non-Fiction Contest

Details:

Genre: Creative Non-Fiction. Writers are encouraged to explore the form.

Prizes: $3,000 in total, plus publication in EVENT: $1,500 First Place; $1,000 Second Place; $500 Third Place.

Entry Fee: $34.95 per entry; includes a one-year subscription (or renewal) to EVENT and all applicable taxes and shipping

Deadline: EXTENDED to October 20, 2024 (submitted online via Submittable, or postmarked)

Guest Judge: Michelle Cyca

Michelle Cyca (she/her) is a journalist, essayist and literary critic. She is an editor with The Narwhal and a contributing writer to The Walrus, for which she received a National Magazine Award in 2024 for best column. Her feature story, “The Curious Case of Gina Adams,” received a National Magazine Award in 2023 for investigative journalism, and was published in April 2024 as a limited-edition hardcover by Hingston & Olsen.

Her writing can be found in Best Canadian Essays 2025 and the anthology Points of Interest, and has also appeared in The Globe & Mail, The Guardian, Maclean’s and Chatelaine. Previously, she was the editor-in-chief and co-publisher of SAD Mag. She lives on the unceded homelands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations in what is recently called Vancouver, and is a member of the Muskeg Lake Cree Nation in Treaty 6, Saskatchewan. 

Two Ways to Submit:

1. Online via Submittable. Click on the button below):


submit

2. Send your manuscript, along with a cheque or international money order, payable to EVENT, to the address below. (American entrants please pay in US dollars.) Include a separate cover sheet with name, full mailing address, phone number / email, title and word count.

EVENT, Non-Fiction Contest, PO Box 2503, New Westminster, BC, V3L 5B2, Canada

Rules

  • 5,000 word limit on entries.
  • Entries must not have been previously published, either in print or online, or been accepted for publication elsewhere.
  • No simultaneous submissions.
  • Do not identify yourself on the entry.
  • Multiple entries are allowed; however, each entry must be accompanied by its own $34.95 entry fee.
  • If already subscribed to EVENT, you will receive a one-year extension.
  • Entries will not be returned.
  • If entrants wish feedback and commentary on manuscripts, please check out our Reading Service for Writers.
  • Writers with fiction or poetry manuscripts currently under submission with EVENT are welcome to enter.
  • Preliminary judging is done by the Editor and editorial assistants at EVENT.
  • Douglas College students, employees and their immediate family members are not eligible to enter. Douglas College students may enter two years after completing courses.
  • Entries must be postmarked or submitted online by end of day October 20 (Pacific Time).
  • Contest results are posted on our website and through social media. The winning entries and judge’s essay are published in the Spring/Summer issue of EVENT.
  • For more information, contact us at event@douglascollege.ca or 604-527-5293.

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