The First Page student writing challenge is now open for submissions! Enter online by clicking the link below:
The challenge will be accepting submissions until February 29 at 11:59 p.m. ET. Finalists from each category will be selected by a team of expert readers. Finalists will be notified by email in the spring of 2024. The exact timing will depend on the number of submissions received.
Basil Sylvester is the judge of the 2024 challenge. Alongside their father, Kevin Sylvester, they are the co-author of the middle-grade novel The Fabulous Zed Watson and the recently published second book in the series, Night of the Living Zed.
Both winners will receive a one-year subscription to OwlCrate, which sends fresh boxes of books to young readers across Canada on a monthly basis. In addition, each winners' school libraries will receive 50 free YA books.
You can read the complete rules and regulations here.
Last year's winners were Christian A. Yiouroukis for his story Where the Maple Leaf Grows and Bee Lang for their story One Question.
Read the work of all of the First Page's past winners and finalists here.
THE CHALLENGE: We want Grades 7 to 12 students to give us a glimpse of the great Canadian novel in the year 2174. Your challenge is to write the first page of a novel set 150 years in the future, with your protagonist facing an issue that's topical today and setting the scene for how it's all playing out in a century and a half.
WHAT YOU CAN WRITE: Your entry can be 300-400 words in length. Your entry also needs a title, but the title is not included in the word limit. Your entry can be written in any genre.
WHO CAN ENTER: This contest is open to all Canadian residents who are full-time students enrolled in Grades 7 to 12. Entries will be judged in two categories: Grades 7 to 9 and Grades 10 to 12.
PRIZES: The winner of each category will receive a one-year subscription to OwlCrate, which delivers monthly boxes of books and literary-related goodies. The school library of each winner will also receive a donation of 50 books.
TEACHER GUIDES: Visit Curio.ca for discussion questions and writing tips from Canadian writers, like Cory Doctorow, Linwood Barclay, Fonda Lee, Cherie Dimaline, Erin Bow, katherena vermette and M.G. Vassanji.
WHEN YOU CAN SUBMIT: Feb. 1 to 29, 2024. The competition closes at 11:59 p.m. ET on Feb. 29, 2024.
HAVE QUESTIONS? Email us at cbcbooks@cbc.ca.
WANT MORE STUDENT WRITING CHALLENGES? Sign up for our newsletter below to find out about our creative writing challenges.
INTERESTED IN OTHER CBC LITERARY PRIZES?
The 2024 CBC Nonfiction Prize is open for submissions until March 1, 2024. Submit your original, unpublished nonfiction that is up to 2,000 words and you could win $6,000, a two-week writing residency and have your work published on CBC Books.
