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.
Thank You and Good Luck!
The Dave Williamson National Short Story Competition is now over and all entries have been sent to our preliminary judges. We thank everyone who entered and now have the delight of reading your stories. Results will be released according to the following schedule:
- Mid-March – longlist announced
- End of March – shortlist announced
- First week of April – Winners and Honourable Mentions announced
- May 9 – Hybrid Reception for The Dave at Video Pool 92nd Floor of Artspace).
Readings by the authors of the three winning stories. Launch of Beyond Boundaries, Volume II, containing the winning stories and stories receiving honourable mention. Meet the judges, enjoy refreshments, and talk with the authors and judges. Friends and family of the winners and honourable mentions as well as all entrants are invited to come, as long as you register in advance (we have a maximum of 70). More information to come.
During May and June, each entrant will receive a short summary of the judges’ comments about your story.
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
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.
Lee Kvern
Lee Kvern is a Canadian author of short stories and novels. Her stories in 7 Ways to Sunday have garnered literary awards including the CBC Literary Prize. Afterall was selected for regional Canada Reads and nominated for Alberta Book Awards and the Ottawa Relit Award. Lush Triumphant finalist and recent Best of the Net nominee. Her work has been produced for CBC Radio and been published in numerous literary magazines across Canada and the US. She’s currently finished her fourth novel Catch You on the Flipside, an international thriller.
Zilla Jones
Zilla Jones, she/her, is an African-Canadian writer living on Treaty 1 territory (Winnipeg.) She is a 2023 Journey Prize winner and has also won the Malahat Review Open Season award, Jacob Zilber award, Freefall short prose award, and GritLit festival award. She placed second in the Prairie Fire and Austin Clarke fiction prizes, and received Honourable Mention in the Room magazine short story contest. She has also been longlisted twice by the CBC short fiction prize and was a finalist in the Alberta Magazine Publishing awards. Her work appears in Prairie Fire, the Malahat Review,
Prism International, Freefall, the Fiddlehead, the Puritan, Room, and The Journey Prize Stories. Zilla is also a busy criminal defence and human rights lawyer, anti-racism educator, singer, and mother to musical and athletic children.
Lauren Carter
Lauren Carter (she/her) is the author of five books including two poetry collections, two novels, and her latest, the short story collection Places Like These which was a Globe and Mail recommended read. This Has Nothing To Do With You, her last novel, won the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction at the Manitoba Book Awards, when she also earned the John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writing. She lives on 1.4 acres within the homeland of the Metis Nation, on Treaty One territory, near Winnipeg, Manitoba, where she writes and runs a variety of writing retreats through her business Wild Ground Writing.
Trevor Greyeyes
Trevor Greyeyes has been a writer, journalist, poet, playwright, guitar player and all round bon vivant, minus the money.
A First Nation man who hails from Netley Creek First Nation.
As he takes his first steps into being recognized for entering his elderly years, Greyeyes looks forward to doing even more.
Please be sure to follow these guidelines as every one of them is important to ensure your story is accepted and read.
We actively encourage submissions from all writers who are 18+ years of age, including writers with disabilities, writers in the 2SLGTBQIA+ communities, BIPOC writers, mature writers, and other under-represented communities.
- Submissions open December 1, 2023.
- Submissions close February 22, 2024, at 11:59 CST.
- Open to Canadian citizens and permanent or academic residents.
- Stories must be 2,500-5,000 words maximum in any fiction genre.
- Submissions must be submitted in Times New Roman, 12-point font, double-spaced, with one-inch margins, and first line indents.
- Include page numbers in the upper right-hand corner of your document with the story title in the header of each page.
- This is a blind judging contest. There should be no identifying information on the story document.
- Your submission must include:
- Your manuscript with its title, followed by the word count, with no other identifying information.
- All the information requested in the competition form on the website. Please ensure that where the form asks for the title of your entry, your title must match exactly the title that is on the front page of your submitted manuscript. Similarly, the word count must match exactly.
- Payment submitted through our website submission portal.
- No simultaneous submissions. Entries must be previously unpublished and not under consideration by any other publication. Previously published includes both traditionally and self-published in print and e-format including all printed formats, ezines, blogs, online literature sites, and newsletters.
- All entries must be original works by the entrant. Entries must be organically created, that is, written by the author. Stories generated by, written with, or influenced by AI, will be disqualified. The use of third-party poetry, song lyrics, characters, or another person’s universe, without written permission, will result in disqualification.
- Your document must be sent in .doc, .docx, .rtf, or .txt format. No other file types will be accepted.
- The judges’ decisions are final.
- All entries must be submitted through a dedicated portal on the Manitoba Writers’ Guild website. You can enter the portal here on or after December 1st, 2023:
If you have any questions or want further clarification, send your inquiries to . DO NOT send any entries to this address. They will not be accepted. (the ‘o’ in contesto is the letter ‘o’ not the number zero).
Write the best story you can, follow these guidelines, and we wish you all the best of good fortune. We have judges eager to read what you have written. Please remember the words of one of our lead judges from both last year and this year: “Everyone who enters is a winner, because you’ve had the courage and confidence to create and refine and hone as perfectly as you can a piece of writing for others to enjoy.”
Winners
First Prize
Return to Chrysalis by Bruce Cinnamon
Second Prize
TEOTWAWKI by Rowan McCandless
Third Prize
Sketches by Gaylene Dutchyshen
Honourable Mentions
Legend of the Magpie: An Original Métis Story by C. Merle Klyne
The Other Side of the Map by Eleonore Schönmaier
The Redhead by Sharon McInnes
On The Edge of My Couch by Thila Varghese
Judges
Raye Anderson
Author of The Roxanne Calloway Mystery Series, finalist for the Best First Crime Novel (Crime Writers of Canada) and finalist for the WILLA Award in the Original Softcover Fiction category. Her second book in the series, And Then Is Heard No More (Signature Editions) was selected for the Winnipeg Free Press Summer Book Club (2022). A fourth book is planned for next year.
Frances Koncan
Writer-in-Residence at the Millennium Library (2022-23), was formerly Writer–Residence at the University of Manitoba Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture (2021). Of Anishinaabe and Slovene descent, she brings her knowledge of diverse cultures to her writing, winning the Best New Manitoba Play award at the Winnipeg Fringe (2016) and Best New Play award at the Toronto Fringe Festival (2018). Her most recent play premiered at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre in 2021.
Zilla Jones
Judged for the Malahat Review and is participating in the award-winning Millennium Library Program for young writers, sponsored by Creative Manitoba. She was a Sheldon Oberman Mentorship Program apprentice, mentored by Angeline Schellenberg, and is represented by a Canadian Transatlantic agent. Zilla won first place in the Malahat Review Open Season, Prism International Jacob Zilber award, FreeFall and GritLit festival awards, and was runner up in The Puritan Austin Clarke WRd and Prairie Fire fiction contest. A member of the Guild, her writing expertise and critiques are widely respected in our Writing Critique Circles.
Bob Armstrong
Winner of the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction (2022) for Prodigies and author of the weekly column, Paper Chase, in the Winnipeg Free Press. His most recently published short story appears in The Uncharted Territory issue of Prairie Fire (2022).
Help Spread the Word!
Share these posts on social media, with friends, family, and classmates.
- Submissions open December 1, 2022.
- Submissions close March 1, 2023 at 11:59 CST.
- Short prose in English must be 2,500-5,000 words maximum in any fiction genre.
- Open to Canadian citizens and permanent residents only.
- Submissions should be submitted in Times New Roman, 12-point font, double-spaced, with one-inch margins, and first line indents.
- Include page numbers in the upper right-hand corner of your document with the story title in the header of each page.
- This is a blind judging contest. There should be no identifying information on the story document. Your submission will consist of two documents:
- Your manuscript with its title and no other identifying information.
- A cover letter that contains your name, home address, email address, telephone number, story title, and word count. Please specify if you are a Guild member, non-member, or member of another out-of-province writing organization.
- The judges’ decisions are final.
- No simultaneous submissions. Entries must be previously unpublished and not under consideration by any other publication. Previously published includes both traditionally and self-published in print and e-format including all printed formats, ezines, blogs, online literature sites, and newsletters.
- All entries must be original works by the entrant. The use of third-party poetry, song lyrics, characters, or another person’s universe, without written permission, will result in disqualification.
- We are accepting only email submissions for this contest. Please make sure the file is sent as a .pdf, .doc/.docx or .txt document.
- Send submissions and inquiries to .
Judges
Raye Anderson
Author of The Roxanne Calloway Mystery Series, finalist for the Best First Crime Novel (Crime Writers of Canada) and finalist for the WILLA Award in the Original Softcover Fiction category. Her second book in the series, And Then Is Heard No More (Signature Editions) was selected for the Winnipeg Free Press Summer Book Club (2022). A fourth book is planned for next year.
Lauren Carter
Trevor Greyeyes
Zilla Jones
Judged for the Malahat Review and is participating in the award-winning Millennium Library Program for young writers, sponsored by Creative Manitoba. She was a Sheldon Oberman Mentorship Program apprentice, mentored by Angeline Schellenberg, and is represented by a Canadian Transatlantic agent. Zilla won first place in the Malahat Review Open Season, Prism International Jacob Zilber award, FreeFall and GritLit festival awards, and was runner up in The Puritan Austin Clarke WRd and Prairie Fire fiction contest. A member of the Guild, her writing expertise and critiques are widely respected in our Writing Critique Circles.
Lee Kvern
Winners
First Prize
Return to Chrysalis by Bruce Cinnamon
Second Prize
TEOTWAWKI by Rowan McCandless
Third Prize
Sketches by Gaylene Dutchyshen
Honourable Mentions
Legend of the Magpie: An Original Métis Story by C. Merle Klyne
The Other Side of the Map by Eleonore Schönmaier
The Redhead by Sharon McInnes
On The Edge of My Couch by Thila Varghese
Judges
Raye Anderson
Author of The Roxanne Calloway Mystery Series, finalist for the Best First Crime Novel (Crime Writers of Canada) and finalist for the WILLA Award in the Original Softcover Fiction category. Her second book in the series, And Then Is Heard No More (Signature Editions) was selected for the Winnipeg Free Press Summer Book Club (2022). A fourth book is planned for next year.
Frances Koncan
Writer-in-Residence at the Millennium Library (2022-23), was formerly Writer–Residence at the University of Manitoba Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture (2021). Of Anishinaabe and Slovene descent, she brings her knowledge of diverse cultures to her writing, winning the Best New Manitoba Play award at the Winnipeg Fringe (2016) and Best New Play award at the Toronto Fringe Festival (2018). Her most recent play premiered at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre in 2021.
Zilla Jones
Judged for the Malahat Review and is participating in the award-winning Millennium Library Program for young writers, sponsored by Creative Manitoba. She was a Sheldon Oberman Mentorship Program apprentice, mentored by Angeline Schellenberg, and is represented by a Canadian Transatlantic agent. Zilla won first place in the Malahat Review Open Season, Prism International Jacob Zilber award, FreeFall and GritLit festival awards, and was runner up in The Puritan Austin Clarke WRd and Prairie Fire fiction contest. A member of the Guild, her writing expertise and critiques are widely respected in our Writing Critique Circles.
Bob Armstrong
Winner of the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction (2022) for Prodigies and author of the weekly column, Paper Chase, in the Winnipeg Free Press. His most recently published short story appears in The Uncharted Territory issue of Prairie Fire (2022).