Fiction and Poetry Competitions

Our annual Short Fiction and Poetry competitions have awarded over $175,000 to Canadian Writers since 2011!

Year Two: The Morley Callaghan “Best Canadian Short Story” Competition, with two prizes: $10,000 for first place, and $2,500 for second.

(In 2023 this competition was launched as The inaugural Nona Heaslip $15,000 “Best Canadian Short Story” Competition and Award in memory of Morley Callaghan. Ms. Heaslip died in late 2024 – and so the competition is now The Morley Callaghan “Best Canadian Short Story” Competition, with an anonymous sponsor).

Year Ten: The Ruth and David Lampe $3,000 Poetry Competition and Award in memory of Gwendolyn MacEwen, with two prizes: $1,500 for Best Suite by an Emerging writer, and $1,500 for Best Suite by a Writer at Any Stage of Their Career.

Fiction and Poetry submissions are open from August 15, 2024 through March 31, 2025.

Judging will take place between April 1 and June 1 (judges tbd). A book of winning and shortlisted stories is intended for release in Autumn 2025, to coincide with the Awards Gala to be held in September. We are also considering a book of poetry, featuring writers who have won over the past years.

• For either competition you must enter electronically via Submittable.

For Fiction: All genres and styles are considered. A story’s length is not to exceed 5,000 words.

For Poetry: The total page length of the suite submission is not to exceed 16 pages. It is urged that the suite be a complete body of work, not simply a gathering of unrelated poems. All forms of poetic expression will be considered.

No Submissions can be previously published, and must not have been submitted elsewhere for journal/magazine publication consideration (although the work may be from a collection by an author that is planned or forthcoming – but please first check with us for eligibility approval).

Complete Competition Information to be aware of: Competitions-Guidelines

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A LITTLE HISTORY:

We are very grateful for the decade-long relationship we enjoyed with Gloria Vanderbilt. It was with her generous financial support of the awards that allowed us to make 10 years of the “CVC Competition“ possible. And after each year, with pride and pleasure Exile Editions published the annual anthology of winners and finalists (as we will again do for the Morley Callaghan Award, available for the 2025 awards gala).

The winners and shortlisted from 10 years of the $15,000 Carter V. Cooper (CVC) Short Fiction Competition.

The CVC competition has ended: Gloria Vanderbilt, who initiated the awards in 2011, died in 2019… and although she had intended her estate would keep this important competition going, it was a great 10-year run, and along with Gloria’s son, Anderson Cooper, we agreed that it was time to re-envision the awards: and so, in November of 2022 we opened a new Call for Submissions, and offered a great new competition that once again is only open to Canadian writers… and in doing so, Exile continues its support of writers that has thus far awarded over $125,000, primarily to emerging talent!

The CVC Anthology Series, Books Ten to One:

CVC10:

Layne Coleman – “Tony Nappo Ruined My Life” ($10,000 winner, Emerging Writer – Toronto, Ontario)
Beth Goobie – “One Year” ($5,000 winner, Any Career Point Writer – Saskatoon, Saskatchewan)

Shortlisted:
Joe Bongiorno – “Sugarland” (emerging – Montreal, Quebec)
Kate Cayley – “Neighbours” (emerging – Toronto Ontario)
Bruce Meyer – “Dragon Blood” (Barrie, Ontario)
Rod Carley – “The Land of the Lizard-People” (emerging – North Bay, Ontario)
Jennifer DeLeskie – “Ocosingo” (emerging – Montreal, Quebec)
James MacSwain – “The Teazer” (emerging – Halifax, Nova Scotia)
Andrea Bishop – “An Amateur’s Guide to Going Solo” (emerging – Vancouver, British Columbia)
John Hart – “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Woman” (emerging – Toronto, Ontario)
Jacob Gilligan – “Hail to the Roaches!” (emerging – Ottawa, Ontario)

This year’s judges were Randall Perry, author and editor; Matt Shaw, short story writer and copy editor; Dani Spinoza, fiction and poetry author, anthology editor; Jerry Tutunjian, executive magazine editor. Final selection of winners from the short list of stories: Joyce Carol Oates.

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CVC9:

Katie Zdybel – “The Critics” ($10,000 winner, Emerging Writer – Thornbury, Ontario)
Susan Swan – “The Oil Man’s Tale” ($5,000 co-winner, Any Career Point Writer – Toronto, Ontario)
Linda Rogers – “Rapunzel” ($5,000 co-winner, Any Career Point Writer – Victoria, British Columbia)

Shortlisted:
Lue Boileau – “Wata Tika Dan Blood” (emerging – Toronto, Ontario)
Sarah Tolmie – “Precor” (Waterloo, Ontario)
Darlene Madott – “Newton’s Law” (Toronto, Ontario)
Kate Felix – “The Poet of Blind River” (emerging – Vancouver Island, British Columbia)
A.S. Penne – “All That Can Be Done” (Canada, France, England, and California)
Marion K. Quednau – “Sunday Drive to Gun Club Road” (emerging – Sunshine Coast, British Columbia)
Katie Zdybel – “Honey Maiden” (emerging – Thornbury, Ontario)*
Christine Ottoni – “Plastic” (emerging – Toronto, Ontario)**

* The author had two stories shortlisted.
** The author was a last minute disqualification, but her story is included.

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CVC8:

Leanne Milech – “The Light in the Closet” ($10,000 winner, Emerging Writer – Toronto, Ontario)
Edward Brown – “Remember Me” ($5,000 co-winner, Any Career Point Writer – Toronto, Ontario)
Priscila Uppal – “Elevator Shoes” ($5,000 co-winner, Any Career Point Writer – Toronto, Ontario)

Shortlisted:
Cara Marks– “Aurora Borealis” (emerging – Victoria, British Columbia)
William John Wither – “The Bulbous It with No Eyelids” (emerging – London, Ontario)
Mark Paterson – “My Uncle, My Barbecue Chicken Deliveryman” (emerging – Lorraine, Quebec)
Lorna Crozier – “Rebooting Eden” (emerging – Vancouver Island, British Columbia)
Bruce Meyer – “Cantique de Jean Racine” (Barrie, Ontario)
Christine Miscione – “Your Failing Heart.” (emerging – Hamilton, Ontario)
Martha Bátiz – “Suspended” (emerging – Richmond Hill, Ontario)
Andrea Bradley – “No One Is Watching” (emerging – Oakville, Ontario)

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CVC7:

Halli Villegas – “Road Kill” ($10,000 winner, Emerging Writer – Mount Forest, Ontario)
Seán Virgo – “Sweetie” ($5,000 winner, Any Career Point Writer – Eastend, Saskatchewan)

• Shortlisted:
Iryn Tushabe – “A Separation” (emerging – Saskatchewan)
Katherine Fawcett – “The Pull of Old Rat Creek” (emerging – Squamish, British Columbia)
Darlene Madott – “Winners and Losers” (Toronto, Ontario)
Jane Callen – “Grace” (emerging – Victoria, British Columbia)
Yakos Spiliotopoulos – “Grave Digger” (emerging – Toronto, Ontario)
Chris Urquhart – “Skinbound” (emerging – Toronto, Ontario)
Norman Snider – “Husband Material” (Toronto, Ontario)
Carly Vandergriendt – “Resurfacing” (emerging – Montreal, Quebec)
Linda Rogers – “Breaking the Sound Barrier” (Victoria, British Columbia)

This year’s judges were Matt Shaw, short story writer and copy editor; Dani Spinoza, fiction and poetry author, anthology editor; Jerry Tutunjian, executive magazine editor. Final selection of winners from the long list of 28 stories: Gloria Vanderbilt.

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CVC6:

Matthew Heiti – “For They Were Only Windmills” ($10,000 winner, Emerging; Sudbury, Ontario)
Helen Marshall – “The Gold Leaf Executions” ($5,000 winner, Any Career Point; Sarnia, Ontario/Cambridge, U.K.)

• Shortlisted:
Diana Svennes-Smith – “Stranger In Me” (Eastend, Saskatchewan)
Sang Kim – “Kimchi” (Toronto, Ontario)
A.L. Bishop – “Hospitality” (Niagara Falls, Ontario)
Katherine Govier – “Elegy: Vixen, Swan, Emu” (Toronto, Ontario)
Sheila McClarty – “The Diamond Special” (Oakbank, Manitoba)
Caitlin Galway – “Bonavere Howl” (Toronto, Ontario)
Bruce Meyer – “The Slithy Toves” (Barrie, Ontario)
Frank Westcott – “It Was a Dark Day ~ Not a Stormy Night ~ In Tuck-Tea-Tee-Uck-Tuck” (Alliston, Ontario)
Martha Bátiz – “Paternity, Revisited” (from Mexico; lives Richmond Hill, Ontario)
Leon Rooke – “Open the Door” (Toronto, Ontario)
Norman Snider – “How Do You Like Me Now?” (Toronto, Ontario)

This year’s judges were Matt Shaw, short story writer and copy editor; Colleen Anderson, fiction and poetry author, anthology editor; Jerry Tutunjian, executive magazine editor. Final selection of winners from the long list of 27 stories: Gloria Vanderbilt.

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CVC5:

Lisa Foad – “How To Feel Good” ($10,000 winner, Emerging; Toronto, Ontario)
Nicholas Ruddock – “Mario Vargas Llosa” ($5,000 winner, Any Career Point; Guelph, Ontario)

• Shortlisted:
Hugh Graham – “After Me” (Toronto, Ontario)
Josip Novakovich – “Dunavski Pirat” (from Croatia; lives Montreal, Quebec)
Leon Rooke – “Sara Mago et al” (Toronto, Ontario)
Jane Eaton Hamilton – “The Night SS Sloan Undid His Shirt” (Vancouver, British Columbia)
Bruce Meyer – “Tilting” (Barrie, Ontario)
Priscila Uppal – “Bed Rail Entrapment Risk Notification Guide” (Toronto, Ontario)
Christine Miscione – “Spring” (Hamilton, Ontario)
Veronica Gaylie – “Tom, Dick, and Harry” (Vancouver, British Columbia)
Maggie Dwyer – “Chihuahua” (Commanda, Ontario)
Bart Campbell – “Slim and The Hangman” (Vancouver, British Columbia)
Linda Rogers van Krugel – “Raging Breath and Furious Mothers” (Victoria, British Columbia)
Lisa Pike – “Stellas” (Windsor, Ontario)

This year’s judges were Norman Snider, screenwriter and essayist; Frances Mary Morrison, senior television producer, documentaries; Jerry Tutunjian, executive magazine editor; Matt Shaw, short story writer and copy editor. Final selection of winners from the long list of 26 stories: Gloria Vanderbilt.

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CVC4:

Jason Timermanis – “Appetite” – $10,000 (winner, Emerging; Toronto, Ontario)
Hugh Graham – “The Man” – $5,000 (winner, Any Career Point; Toronto, Ontario)

• Shortlisted:
Helen Marshall – “The Zhanell Adler Brass Spyglass” (Sarnia, Ontario)
K’ari Fisher – “Saddle Up!” (Burns Lake, British Columbia)
Linda Rogers van Krugel – “Three Strikes” (Victoria, British Columbia)
Susan P. Redmayne – “Baptized” (Oakville, Ontario)
Matthew R. Loney – “The Pigeons of Peshawar” (Toronto, Ontario)
Erin Soros – “Morning is Vertical” (Vancouver, British Columbia)
Gregory Betts – “Planck” (St. Catharines, Ontario)
George McWhirter – “Sisters in Spades” (Vancouver, British Columbia)
Madeline Sonik – “Punctures” (Victoria, British Columbia)
Leon Rooke – “Slain By a Madam” (Toronto, Ontario)

This year’s judges were Jerry Tutunjian, executive magazine editor; Matt Shaw, short story writer and copy editor; Norman Snider, screenwriter and essayist; Barry Callaghan, Editor in Chief at Exile; Final selection of winners from the long list of 28 stories: Gloria Vanderbilt.

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CVC3:

Sang Kim – “When John Lennon Died” ($10,000 winner, Emerging; Toronto, Ontario)
Priscila Uppal (Toronto, Ontario) and Austin Clarke (Toronto, Ontario), “Cover Before Striking” and “They Never Told Me” (co-winners, $2,500 each, Any Career Point)

• Shortlisted:
George McWhirter (Vancouver, British Columbia) – “Tennis”
David Somers (Winnipeg, Manitoba) – “Punchy Sells Out”
Leon Rooke (Toronto, Ontario) – “Conditional Sphere of Everyday Historical Life”
Helen Marshall (Sarnia, Ontario) – “Lessons In the Raising of Household Objects”
Yakos Spiliotopoulos (Toronto, Ontario) – “Black Sheep”
Greg Hollingshead (Toronto, Ontario) – “Mother / Son”
Matthew R. Loney (Toronto, Ontario) – “A Fire in the Clearing”
Rob Peters (Vancouver, British Columbia) – “Sam’s House”
Liz Windhorst Harmer (Hamilton, Ontario) – “Teaching Strategies”

This year’s judges were Barry Callaghan, Editor in Chief at Exile; Norman Snider, screenwriter and essayist; Jerry Tutunjian, executive magazine editor; Matt Shaw, short story writer and copy editor. Final selection of winners from the long list of 26 stories: Gloria Vanderbilt.

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CVC2:

Christine Miscione – “Skin, Just” – $3,000 (winner, Emerging; Hamilton, Ontario)
Leon Rooke and Seán Virgo – “Here Comes Henrietta Armani” and “Gramarye” – $2,000 each (co-winners, Any Career Point; Toronto, Ontario and East End, Saskatchewan)

• Shortlisted:
Kelly Watt (Flamborough, Ontario) – “The Things My Dead Mother Says”
Darlene Madott (Toronto, Ontario) – “Waiting (An Almost Love Story)”
Linda Rogers (Victoria, British Columbia) – “Darling Boy”
Daniel Perry (Toronto, Ontario) – “Mercy”
Amy Stuart (Toronto, Ontario) – “The Roundness”
Phil Della (Vancouver, British Columbia) – “I Did It for You”
Jacqueline Windh (Vancouver, British Columbia) – “The Night the Floor Jumped”
Kris Bertin (Halifax, Nova Scotia) – “Tom Stone and Co.”
Martha Bátiz (Richmond Hill, Ontario) – “The Last Confession”

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CVC1:

Silvia Moreno-Garcia – “Scales as Pale as Moonlight” (emerging, co-winner; $3,000)
Frank Westcott – “The Poet” (emerging, co-winner; $3,000)
Ken Stange – “The Heart of a Rat” (established; $2,000)

• Shortlisted:
Hugh Graham – “Through the Sky”
Leigh Nash – “The Field Trip”
Frank Wescott – “The Poet”
Rishma Dunlop – “Paris”
Zoe Stikeman – “Single-Celled Amoeba”
Kristi-ly Green – “The Patient”
Gregory Betts – “To Tell You”
Ken Stange – “The Heart of a Rat”
Silvia Moreno-Garcia – “Scales as Pale as Moonlight”
Richard Van Camp – “On the Wings of This Prayer”

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As a bridge between the Morley Callaghan Award and the 10 years of the Carter V. Cooper Short Fiction Award, we held a single year of the $15,000 Nona MacDonald Heaslip Award – with the Winners presented their Awards on Thursday, October 19, 2023, at a Gala Evening Party held in Toronto. Winners in BOLD / Shortlisted follow winners / Longlisted in parentheses:

$15,000 ~ Sweet Boy — Nicholas Ruddock (appeared in EXILE 46.2)
$2,000 ~ Dear Julia — Andreana Callegarini-Gradzik (appeared in EXILE 46.2)

A Type of Baby — Robert McGill (appeared in EXILE 47.1)
This Is How We Remember Kyra — Matthew J. Trafford (appeared in EXILE 47.1)
Smoke — Barbara Stowe
White Phosphorus, Golden Wheat — Chance Freihaut
Magnets — Giles Blunt
The Fury and the Words — Anneliese Schultz
Saskatchewan — Mitchell Toews
Appropriation — Darlene Madott

(Of Monsters and Dolls — Susan Sanford Blades)
(Body of Plenty — Sarah Christina Brown)
(A Murder of Crows — Nick Ginter)
(Slugs — Mahta Riazi)
(The Impossible People — Jenna Butler)
(Couch of Gibraltar — Mark Paterson)
(Shanahan’s Turn — Joel Thomas Hynes)
(Jeff Bezos’s Kitchens — Kate Story)

The Judges: Randall Perry, F.M. Morrison, Jerry Tutunjian, Seán Virgo, Barry Callaghan

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The Winners and Finalists of the Gwendolyn MacEwen Competition and Award, years One through Nine:

Year Nine had two categories: $1,500 for Best Suite by an Emerging writer; $1,500 for Best Suite by at Any Career Point. Winners in BOLD / Shortlisted follow winners / Longlisted in parentheses:

Emerging category:
$1,500 ~ The Work of Witness – Ken Victor (appeared in EXILE Quarterly 46.1)

Dreamscapes and Other Colloquialisms – Micaela Day
Edward – Callista Markotich
Married Young and Still Going – Bart Campbell
(Alice, Circa 1985 – Susan Atkinson)
(All Comes to Pass – Frank Westcott)
(Edward – Callista Markotich)
(To My Sister – Jill Solnicki)

At Any Career Point category: (we added a second prize because the judges called them of equal merit!):
$1,500 ~ This Was Dark – Marilyn Bowering (appeared in EXILE Quarterly 46.2)
$1,500 ~ If I Have Known Beauty – Lorraine Gane (and a finalist for Canada’s National Magazine Awards after appearing in EXILE Quarterly 46.2)

Epistolarium – Chelsea Dingman
Themista, Accidental Epicurean, Breaks Her Arm – Susan Andrews Grace
It Begins in Salt – Natalie Meisner
(Round Trip – Michael Fraser)
(Tales of the Faerie #26 – Kelly Watt)
(The Last Stand – John B. Lee)
(Themista, Accidental Epicurean, Breaks Her Arm – Susan Andrews Grace)

The Judges: Beatriz Hausner, Stanley Fefferman, Gregory Betts, Barry Callaghan

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Year Eight had two categories: $1,500 for Best Suite by an Emerging writer; $1,500 for Best Suite by at Any Career Point.

Best Emerging Suite: Richard A. Brait (Toronto, Ontario) – Ibsen In the Movies

Best Suite by Any Poet: Yvonne Blomer (Vancouver, British Columbia) – Death of Persephone

Year Seven (info being updated/corrected) had two categories: $1,500 for Best Suite by an Emerging writer; $1,500 for Best Suite by at Any Career Point.

Year six had two categories: $1,500 for Best Suite by an Emerging writer; $1,500 for Best Suite by at Any Career Point.

Best Emerging Suite: Michael Fraser (Toronto, Ontario) – The Daybreakers

Best Suite by Any Poet: Roger Greenwald (Toronto, Ontario) – Song of Songs

The judges for Years Six, Seven, and Eight:

Dani Spinosa received her Ph.D. in English, with a specialty in contemporary poetry, from York University. Her book Anarchists in the Academy: Machines and Free Readers in Experimental Poetry, is forthcoming in 2018. She is also the author of Glossas for Tired Eyes, a chapbook from No Press, co-editor of Gap Rio Press, which publishes feminist experimental literature, and the editor of Decoding Canadian Digital Poetics.

Richard Teleky, a Professor in the Humanities Department of York University, is the acclaimed author of a dozen books. His work includes four novels, a short fiction collection and three non-fiction studies, as well as several literary anthologies, as editor, and two poetry collections – The Hermit’s Kiss and The Hermit in Arcadia. His poems, essays and short fiction have appeared in numerous Canadian and American literary journals. Teleky’s most recent books are the novel The Blue Hour and, forthcoming in 2017, Ordinary Paradise: Essays on Art and Culture.

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Year five had three categories: $1,500 for Best Suite by an Emerging writer; $1,000 for Best Suite by at Any Career Point; $500 Best Poem by a writer at Any Career Point (final year of this category).

Best Emerging Suite: Adrienne Drobnies (Vancouver, British Columbia, emerging) – Radonnées

• Shortlisted:
Grant Wilkins – Reading The Hidden Literary Art in Michèle Provost’s Roman Feuilleton
Judith George – Unremembered
Basma Kavanagh – AHLI
Erina Harris – Zoion

Best Suite by Any Poet: Antony Di Nardo (Sutton, Quebec, established) – May June July

• Shortlisted:
Bruce Meyer (established) – The Necklace
Deirdre Diana Dwyer (established) – Yoshitoshi’s 100 Aspects of the Moon
Sue Sorensen (emerging) – The Mary Cycle: Let All God’s Glory Through
Jody Baltessen (emerging) – Invasion Studies

Best Poem (from all categories): Sue Sorensen (Winnipeg, Manitoba; emerging) – Blue: Three Sonnets to Mary

Shortlisted:
Martha Gould (established) – Site Map
Priscila Uppal (established) – The Dog Who Barked Backwards
Kathleen Miller (established) – Onset
Max Layton (established) – At the Home for Homeless Poems

The judges:

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Year four had three categories, $1,500 for Best Suite by an Established writer, $1,000 for Best Suite by an Emerging Writer (new), and $500 Best Poem by a writer at Any Career Point.

Best Established Suite: Gillian Harding-Russell (Regina, Saskatchewan, established) – Making Sense.
Best Emerging Suite: Kerry Gilbert (Vernon, B.C., emerging) – Little Red
• Short list for both categories:
Kerry Gilbert – Cor-age
Susan Vernon – Ladywood
Susan J. Atkinson – Marta Dreams of a Better Life
James MacSwain – Puss Cat in the Underworld

Best Poem: Bruce Meyer (Barrie, Ontario, established) – The Road to Alfacar
• Shortlisted:
James MacSwain, emerging – Fool
Rafi Aaron, emerging – Listen to Me Like You Have Listened to the Rain
Sherry Coffey, emerging – Mennonite House
Tom Wayman, established – Water Elegy

Judge: Seán Virgo was born in Malta, and grew up in South Africa, Malaya, Ireland and the U.K. He immigrated to Canada in 1966 and has lived on the Queen Charlotte Islands, Newfoundland, various Gulf Islands, the Bruce Peninsula and in recent years in Southwest Saskatchewan. He has published a dozen books of poetry and fiction, and has won national magazine awards in both genres, as well as CBC and BBC competitions for short stories.

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In years one, two and three we had two categories: $2,000 for Best Suite by any writer, and $500 for Best Poem.

Year three:

Best Suite: Tom Wayman with The Question.

• Shortlisted:
Bruce Meyer – Arthur and Alfred
Marianne Micros – Demeter’s Daughters
Gillian Harding-Russell – Proud men do not listen
Tom Wayman – The Question

Best Poem: Bruce Meyer with “The Harmony”

• Shortlisted:
Bruce Meyer – Abandoned Houses
Priscila Uppal – Another Dysfunctional Cancer Poem
Keith Garebian – A True Portrait of Talaat Pasha
Jeanette Luchese – Confirmants
Roger Greenwald – Spring Flowers at Pompeii
Bruce Meyer – The Harmony

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Year Two:

Best Suite: Jeff Bien (Kemptville, Ontario) with A Bribe for the Ferryman.
• Longlisted:
Rishma Dunlop – Amsterdam Suite (Toronto ON)
Yvonne Blomer – Letters Home (Victoria BC)
Cathy Ford – Washing the Bodies of the Dead (Sidney BC)
Linda Rogers – Ekphrasis (Victoria BC)
David Zieroth – Poems with Slovak Words (North Vancouver BC)
Bruce Meyer – Paper Ornithology (Barrie ON)
Elizabeth Woods – When the Earthquake Struck (Victoria BC)
Bruce Meyer – The Book of Things (Barrie ON)
Rahat Kurd – Seven Stones for Jamarat (Vancouver BC)
Jeff Bien – A Bribe for the Ferryman (Kemptville ON)
Sarah Klassen – Perchance to Dream (Winnipeg MB)

Best Poem: Brian Brett (Salt Spring Island, British Columbia) with Food Chain.
• Longlisted:
James MacSwain – Banquet (Halifax NS)
Bruce Meyer – Ravenna Side Road (Barrie ON)
Valérie C. Kaelin – Bouquet (Toronto ON)
D.C. Reid – Like the Circles That You Find (Victoria BC)
Elaine Stirling – Unprincipled (Newmarket ON)
Brian Brett – The Control Shot (Salt Spring Island BC)
Bruce Meyer – A Free Translation (Barrie ON)
Kathy Fisher – Smoke Pit (Edmonton AB)
Bruce Meyer – Strawberries (Barrie ON)
Brian Brett – Food Chain (Salt Spring Island BC)
Frank Westcott – And She Lay Herself Down (Alliston ON)
Sandra Kasturi – Our Children Are Sad Because We Love Them (Toronto ON)

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Year One:

Best Suite – joint Winners (to share the $2,000): Threshold by Marilyn Bowering and Touched by Linda Rogers van Krugel.

• Shortlisted:
Renée Sarojini Saklikar – Children of air India, selected exhibits
Adrienne Drobnies – Randonnées
Marilyn Bowering – Threshold
Linda Rogers van Krugel – Touched

Best Poem: ($500) Blue Hour by Pamela Porter.

• Shortlisted:
Pamela Porter – Blue Hour
Bruce Meyer – Cezanne’s Card Players
Gillian Harding-Russell – Desert Duet
Branka Petrovic – In Which Her Extremities Are Devil and Her Face is Angel
Bruce Meyer – The Movie Being Filmed Across the Street…

Published in ELQ/Exile: The Literary Quarterly.
• The winners and selected shortlisted writers appear in ELQ/Exile.

Published in the annual CVC anthology.
• The winners and all shortlisted writers appear in the annual Carter V. Cooper (CVC) Short Fiction Anthology. The winners and selected shortlisted writers appear in ELQ/Exile.
• Also, a very important component of both competitions is that winning and shortlisted authors can go on to realize full book publication with Exile Editions. The following are books published:

From past Winners (fiction):
• Silvia Moreno-Garcia (emerging) released her first published collection, This Strange Way of Dying, in September 2013.
• Christine Miscione (emerging) released her first published collection, Auxiliary Skins, in September 2013. The collection won the ReLit award for short fiction.
• Leon Rooke (established) released the collection Wide World in Celebration and Sorrow: Acts of Kamikaze Fiction, in October of 2012.
• Austin Clarke (established) released the collection They Never Told Me and Other Stories, in October 2013. The collection won a finalist for the ReLit award for short fiction.
• Hugh Graham (emerging) released the collection Last Words in October 2015. It received a starred review in Publishers Weekly (https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-55096-486-8) and was a finalist in 2016 for the $10,000 Danuta Gleed Award for a first collection of fiction.

From past Shortlisted (fiction):
• Matthew R. Loney released his first published collection, That Savage Water, in November 2014.
• George McWhirter (established) with the collection The Gift of Women, in November 2014
• Veronica Gaylie with Sword Dance, a 168-page long poem/fiction-like tale, in September 2015.
• Linda Rogers with the novel Bozuk, in November 2016.
• Also, Silvia Moreno-Garcia edited for Exile Editions the anthologies Dead North: Canadian Zombie Fiction (2013), and Fractured: Tales of the Canadian Post-Apocalypse (2014) – both now in their third 1,000 copies printing.

From past Winners and the Shortlisted, their books of poetry with Exile Editions:

• Michael Fraser with his collection With My Eyes Wide Open, in October 2023.

• Kerry Gilbert with her collection Lady Bird, in October 2023.

• Jeff Bien with his collection In a Time of No Song, in April 2015.

• Rafi Aaron with his collection In the Days of the Cottonwind and the Sparrow, in April 2017.

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Our annual Short Fiction and Poetry competitions have awarded over $175,000 to Canadian Writers since 2011!

The winners and shortlisted from 10 years of the $15,000 Carter V. Cooper (CVC) Short Fiction Competition.

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Our annual Short Fiction and Poetry competitions have awarded over $175,000 to Canadian Writers since 2011!

The winners and shortlisted from 10 years of the $15,000 Carter V. Cooper (CVC) Short Fiction Competition.

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