We are thrilled to finally share the results of our 2018 Poetry & Fiction Contest! Here’s our heartiest of congratulations to the following six writers.
Room’s 2018 Poetry & Fiction Contest Winners
We are thrilled to finally share the results of our 2018 Poetry & Fiction Contest! It’s always humbling to have writers trust us with their writing and the quality of work blows us away each time. And much gratitude goes out to our judges, Vivek Shraya and Zoe Whittall, for taking the time out to read the submissions and make the taxing decision. Heartfelt congratulations to the following writers!
Poetry Contest
1st Place: “Minimal Pairs Are Words Holding Hands” by Selina Boan
Selina Boan lives on the traditional, ancestral, unceded territories of the Musqueam, Sḵwxwú7mesh and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. She won the Gold National Magazine Award for Poetry in 2017 and was shortlisted for the 2016 CBC poetry prize. She is working on a collection of poems exploring her Cree and European heritage. [Editor’s note: Boan was also the recipient of our annual Emerging Writer Award this year!]
2nd Place: “Poem for unwilling mothers” by Rebecca Salazar
Rebecca Salazar is the author of Guzzle (Anstruther) and a poetry chapbook forthcoming this fall (Rahila’s Ghost). She is a poetry editor for The Fiddlehead and Plenitude magazines, and has published poetry and non-fiction in journals recently including PRISM international, Minola, Briarpatch, and The Puritan.
Honourable Mention: “A ballad for messy brown girls” by Angela Britto
Angela Britto is a Tamil writer and arts administrator based in Toronto. She has an MA in English from the University of Pennsylvania. Her professional, academic and artistic interests are in race, gender, diaspora, representation and social justice. Her debut publication appeared in The Unpublished City II anthology.
Fiction Contest
1st Place: “When Foxes Die Electric” by Paola Ferrante
Paola Ferrante’s poetry and fiction have appeared, or are forthcoming, in The Puritan, The Fiddlehead, Joyland, Minola Review and elsewhere. Her poetry was nominated for the 2018 Best of The Net. Her fiction was shortlisted for PRISM international ’s 2018 Grouse Grind. Her debut poetry collection is forthcoming from Mansfield Press.
2nd Place: “Retrospective” by Tanya R. Ward
Tanya R. Ward is a writer from Toronto. Her work has appeared in PRISM international and Little Fiction. She has received an honorable mention from Glimmer Train and was runner-up in the Writers Adventure Camp fiction competition. She holds an MA in philosophy.
Honourable Mention: “They Comes on the Ice” by Kate Felix
Kate Felix is a writer and independent filmmaker who divides her time between Toronto and Cape Breton Island. Find her online at: www.katefelix.com
The 1st and 2nd place winners will be published in our summer issue next year, Room 42.2. To read the honourable mentions, you can click on the titles of their work above. And congrats again to all long listed and shortlisted writers! If you are considering sharing your work with us, check out our annual Short Forms Contest, which accepts short fiction, essay, and prose poetry of 500 words or under. Please note that this is the last time we will be running the poetry and fiction contest as one. The annual fiction contest will open again in January and poetry contest in June.
