SURREY — Indo-Canadian students topped the Surrey Libraries’ winners of the 2020 Surrey Libraries Young Adult Writing Contest.
Gurleena Sukhija won first prizes in both the Junior Short Story and Junior Poetry categories while Akash Ranu won first place in the Senior Shorty Story. The winners were acknowledged at a Virtual Awards Gala on Wednesday, October 14.
The Young Adult Writing Contest is an annual writing competition for youth aged 12-18. Since launching the contest in 1987, Surrey Libraries has received over 6,500 entries from aspiring young writers across Surrey. The contest is free to enter and young writers submit entries to one of the four contest categories: short stories, poems, comics, and a random category for other types of writing such as essays, screenplays, or song lyrics.
Rena Su, a multi-year entrant and winner in the contest, credits the contest with giving her not only more confidence in her writing, but also an opening to other opportunities, saying at the Gala: “With the seemingly small confidence booster that Surrey Libraries gave me, I was able to gain enough momentum to begin sharing my work. In between flurries of rejections and learning and improvement, I was able to land some of my first literary magazine publications and I also connected with people online and gained an editor position at a youth lit magazine.”
“Every year our judges are truly impressed by the level of creativity and diversity in the entries,” explains Kelly Lau, Youth Services Librarian and contest coordinator. “It’s always a pleasant challenge to select the winning entries.”
This popular program is organized by the dynamic youth library staff at Surrey Libraries and is made possible through the generous support of champion sponsors Khalsa Credit Union and Kwantlen Polytechnic University.
An anthology of the winners’ work will be available online, to check out from Surrey Libraries branches, or purchased for $8.00 at the end of November.
Junior Short Story
1st Place – “The Worker,” Gurleena Sukhija
2nd Place – “Number 98,” Sofia Lemay
3rd Place – “Clueless,” Tiffany Montefrio
Honourable Mention – “Watercolors,” Victoria Wang
Honourable Mention – “The Girl Who Visits Dreams,” Emma Hong
Senior Short Story
1st Place – “Saudade,” Akash Ranu
2nd Place – “An Attempt at Building a Coffin for Ma,” Yue Chen
3rd Place – “Separate Ways,” Carmen Campbell
Honourable Mention – “The Everything Tree,” Annie Huang
Honourable Mention – “Citylights,” Rena Su
Junior Poetry
1st Place – “Grow Up,” Gurleena Sukhjia
2nd Place – “Assimilation,” Alyana Amadeo
3rd Place – “Hirosaki Castle,” Richard Su
Honourable Mention – “Rabbit Hole,” Khushi Cheema
Honourable Mention – “SKIN,” Leigh Kathryn Baculi
Senior Poetry
1st Place – “Plum Tea,” Maggie Lu
2nd Place – “Ode to the Window,” Ava Popowitz
3rd Place – “Overthinker,” Yana Fershstein
Honourable Mention – “Quick Fixes,” Audrey Kemp
Honourable Mention – “Astronomical Alliteration,” Muskan Poddar
Random
1st Place –“Ethical Consumerism in a Capitalist State” (Essay), Muskan Guglani
2nd Place –“recounting that summer in which i woke, ate, slept, and repeated the motions mentioned above” (Creative Non-Fiction), Yue Chen
3rd Place –“Aletheia” (Essay), Dean Oh
Honourable Mention – “Crown in the Grave” (Song Lyrics), Gurshaan Chadha
Comics
1st Place – “Stairs of Life, Elevator to Heaven,” Yue Chen
2nd Place – “A Different Kind of Mind,” Stin Dang
3rd Place – “Quiescent,” Andrew Jung
Honourable Mention – “Stick Guy,” Seth Corbett
