2024 Contest closed.
Dave Williamson is one of the founding members of the Manitoba Writers’ Guild and honorary patron of our Short Story Competition.
Open to writers across Canada! We actively encourage submissions from all writers who are 18+ years of age, including writers with disabilities; writers in the 2SLGTBQIA+ communities; BIPOC writers; and other under-represented communities.
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Prizes
First Place
$1,000 CAD
Three year complimentary membership*
Second Place
$600 CAD
Two year complimentary membership*
Third Place
$400 CAD
One year complimentary membership*
*Non-Manitoban residents receive Associate membership. Associate members have all the rights of membership excluding the rights to vote and to serve on the board.
Publication
By submitting your entry to this contest, you agree to give the Manitoba Writers’ Guild’s first North American eBook rights for six months from the date of publication, after which all rights revert to the author if your story is selected. Proceeds from the sale of the e-book will be used to support future Manitoba Writers’ Guild writing competitions.
The three prize winners plus (up to four) honourable mentions will be published in an eBook anthology by the Manitoba Writers’ Guild.
2024 Judges
![raye anderson](https://mbwriters.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Raye-Anderson-920x1150.webp)
Raye Anderson
Raye Anderson is a Scots Canadian who taught Drama and ran Theatre and Community arts programs for many years, notably at Prairie Theatre Exchange in Winnipeg, in Ottawa, and Calgary.
Raye has been a resident of the Interlake since 2007 and presently lives in Gimli. Her first crime fiction novel, And We Shall Have Snow, was published by Signature Editions in 2020. It was shortlisted for Best New Crime Novel, 2021 for the Crime Writers of Canada, Awards of Excellence, and was also shortlisted for Best Softcover Fiction category of the WILLA 2021 Literary Awards.
The second book in the series, which features Sergeant Roxanne Calloway of the RCMP, occurs mostly in Winnipeg, in a fictional theatre company. Titled And Then Is Heard No More, it was published by Signature Editions in 2021, and was the Winnipeg Free Press Book Club choice for summer of 2022.
Raye returned to the Interlake as the setting for her third book, Down Came The Rain, published by Signature Editions in 2022. The fourth in the series, Sing a Song of Summer, was released July 2023 by Signature Editions this spring.
You can find Ray Anderson’s books here.
Program News
May 31, 2024
Contest Winners Celebrated at The Dave
By Steve Oetting The annual Dave Williamson National Short Story Competition reception, fondly known as “The Dave,” was held on May 9 at ArtSpace. This reception is hosted by the Guild as a way to honour the short story contributors who were creative and intrepid enough to provide submissions, the judges who spent weeks carefully assessing those stories and enduring the delicate task of selecting the winners, and of course Dave Williamson, the honorary patron …
March 21, 2024
Shortlist – Dave Williamson Short Story Competition
Choosing the best among many good stories is not so straightforward a task as one might imagine. Our five lead judges, Raye Anderson, Lauren Carter, Trevor Greyeyes, Zilla Jones, and Lee Kvern engaged in energetic discussions focusing on the craft of writing and the elements of fiction, ultimately deciding on the following seven stories for our shortlist. The finalists for “The Dave” 2024 are: (in random order) Homeward Bound by Rowan McCandless, Winnipeg, MBCanadian Cougars by …
We are thrilled to announce the longlist for this year’s Dave Williamson National Short Story Competition (aka ‘The Dave”). We received 105 entries, an increase of 10% over last year, once again ranging from British Columbia to Nova Scotia. The judges have been busy reading this diverse range of stories and have made their selection.
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