It’s time! Here are the winners of the 2026 Creative Non-Fiction Contest, as chosen by our fantastic judge, Kai Cheng Thom. Congratulations to these writers on their big success for their works!
FIRST PLACE: Language of Poverty, by Alison Colwell
Alison Colwell is a writer, mother, domestic violence survivor and community organizer. Her work has been published in several literary journals including: The Humber Literary Review, The Ocotillo Review, Hippocampus Magazine, Dorothy Parker’s Ashes and Literary Mama. She lives on Galiano Island, Canada. Connect at: alisoncolwell.com.
The deceptively simple lyric structure of this powerful personal essay contains within a striking mastery of storytelling technique combined with a compelling thematic exploration of poverty, resilience, and the struggle to survive in conditions of deprivation. A miniature memoir rendered in powerful and absorbing vignettes, “The Language of Poverty” demonstrates remarkable economy of language without compromising emotional depth or complexity. This is creative non-fiction at its best. — Kai Cheng Thom
SECOND PLACE: We Do Not Dwell, by Carmen G. Farrell
Carmen G. Farrell is an inclusion ally, mother and former school district administrator. Appearing in leading Canadian journals, her writing has been a finalist in national competitions, including the Writers’ Union of Canada Emerging Writer Short Prose Competition and the Edna Staebler Personal Essay Contest. North Vancouver is home.
Skillfully weaving the narrative structures of first-person journalism, memoir, and lyric prose, “We Do Not Dwell” is a raw, piercing examination of the way that contemporary social and economic systems fail the most vulnerable while shifting responsibility onto those with few resources. This story is at once an elegy, a call for justice, and the unravelling of a mystery: The author returns to the scene of the proverbial crime in order to reveal what and who is truly responsible for needless suffering and death when it comes to failing social care networks. — Kai Cheng Thom
THIRD PLACE: What Remains, by Barclay Rose
Barclay is a multi-disciplinary artist passionate about community arts. She runs an artist residency, The Ou Gallery, with her family on the unceded lands of the Quw’ustsun and is working on a memoir about mothers and daughters, loss and love.
Written in hauntingly spare prose, this exquisite and tender piece of poetic non-fiction traverses the space of grief. Composed of letters to a lost parent, “What Remains” pairs the painful day-to-day details of laying a loved one to rest with the profoundly existential and spiritual experience of reckoning with death, loss, and love. — Kai Cheng Thom
You’ll be able to read all three pieces in an upcoming issue of Room. A final congratulations to all three winners!
A big thank you to every writer who trusted our collective and our judge with their writing. Whether it is 500 words or 2,000, submitting your writing anywhere at all takes courage, and we are so grateful for all those who chose Room to make that leap.
Last but not least, a thank you to our wonderful judge, Kai Cheng Thom, for her time and care in selecting a shortlist and three winners!
Room‘s annual Creative Non-Fiction Contest will open again in 2027.
