From pen to paper to prizes: Surrey Libraries 2021 Young Adult Writing Contest winners announced
Surrey Libraries has picked the winners of the 2021 Young Adult Writing Contest, with several Surrey secondary schools boasting multiple winners in the top spots.
Dozens of students from across the city were among the winners and finalists, which were announced at an awards gala at city hall on Wednesday, Oct. 13.
Earl Marriott Secondary was home to two second-place finalists, with Audrey Kemp's "Stowaway" in the Senior Short Story category and Cadence Liao's "Food for Thought" in Junior Poetry.
Fleetwood Park Secondary's Saiyah Cheema took silver in Senior Poetry with "Astrophysicist's Love Letter to an Artist," with schoolmate Annika Gill receiving an Honourable Mention for "Time for Change" in the Junior Short Story category.
Fraser Heights Secondary rounded out the schools with triumphant twosomes, seeing Chloe Lee's "The Monster Under the Bed" take second in the Junior Short Story category and Khushi Cheema's "Good Night" receive an Honourable Mention in Junior Poetry.
The annual writing competition for Surrey youth age 12 to 18 has been running since 1987, serving as a platform for aspiring young writers to showcase their talent in the form of short stories, poems, comics, essays, screenplays and lyrics. It is organized by the youth library staff at Surrey Libraries and is supported by champion sponsors Khalsa Credit Union and Kwantlen Polytechnic University.
The winning entries will be compiled in an anthology that will be available online, at Surrey Libraries branches, or on sale for $8 at the end of October.
For a full list of finalists and more information, click here.
2021 WINNERS
Junior Short Story
1st Place - "The Watchmaker's Apprentice," Enya Fang
2nd Place - "The Monster Under the Bed," Chloe Lee
3rd Place - "The Burning Land," Hala Al Said
Honourable Mention - "Orange Fever: A Comedy Horror," Hayden O'Brien
Honourable Mention - "Time for Change," Annika Gill
Senior Short Story
1st Place - "Closure," Joyce Park
2nd Place - "Stowaway," Audrey Kemp
3rd Place - "Solitary Cosmos," Adella Teja
Honourable Mention - "Goodbye," Loki Oravec
Junior Poetry
1st Place - "Deception of Gambling," Hayden O'Brien
2nd Place - "Food for Thought," Cadence Liao
3rd Place - "That Little Girl," Isabella Endersby
Honourable Mention - "Good Night," Khushi Cheema
Honourable Mention - "Looking Down from the Heavens," Jesu Matteo I. Manalo
Senior Poetry
1st Place - "Sweet, Bygone Sixteen," Rena Su
2nd Place - "Astrophysicist's Love Letter to an Artist," Saiyah Cheema
3rd Place - "Bao," Annie Huang
Honourable Mention - "Grey," Loki Oravec
Honourable Mention - "M?kiwam," Manav Sharma
Random
1st Place - "Welcome to the Sisterhood of Guiding" (Fictional Safety Guidelines), Rachael Le
2nd Place - "A rant about my passions" (Creative Non-Fiction), Yue Chen
3rd Place - "Problems with Representative Democracy" (Essay), Manav Sharma SAIL
Honourable Mention - "Patch Notes 06.2021" (Experimental Text), Rena Su
Comics
1st Place - "21st Century Humor," Benedict Carlos
2nd Place - "Immigrant," Annis Seo
3rd Place - "Triangles, Squares, and the Circle," Annie Huang
Honourable Mention - "Lost in Imagination," Sukhman Kambo Enver Creek Secondary
