A Magazine for Alumni and Friends
A panel made up of academics and award-winning authors selected a short story titled Eight, Ten, Twelve by Cavelle Sproule as the winner of the third biennial Laurier Stedman Prize.
Results of the creative writing competition, hosted every other year by the English program at Laurier’s Brantford campus, were announced during a virtual ceremony in May. Sproule, a student at Brantford’s Pauline Johnson Collegiate and Vocational School, received a $3,000 cash prize for her story.
Cavelle Sproule was named winner of the third biennial Laurier Stedman Prize during a virtual ceremony in May.
The Laurier Stedman Prize – a creative fiction competition open exclusively to high school students – is one of the largest prizes of its kind.
“It’s wonderful to see how accomplished the young writers are who enter this competition, and we are grateful to be able to help encourage them to further develop their talent,” said Ken Paradis, associate professor of English at Laurier’s Brantford campus and coordinator of the Laurier Stedman Prize. “Thank you to the teachers at each school who do such a great job of preparing their students.”
First awarded in 2018, the Laurier Stedman Prize is funded through an endowment and estate gift given to Laurier by the late Mary Stedman for the purpose of celebrating and promoting arts and culture. Stedman, who passed away in 2014, was a great champion of Laurier’s Brantford campus and during her lifetime served as an executive member of the Canadian Booksellers Association.
In total, $10,000 in prize money was awarded at the Laurier Stedman Prize celebration. In addition to the $3,000 grand prize, the jury awarded two second-place prizes of $2,000 each and three third-place prizes of $1,000 each.
First place ($3,000 prize)
Eight, Ten Twelve by Cavelle Sproule
Pauline Johnson Collegiate and Vocational School
Second place ($2,000 prize)
The Confectioner by Cailyn Mann
Brantford Collegiate Institute and Vocational School
A Day at the Store by Tahiyah Syeda
Assumption College School
Third place ($1,000 prize)
Delirious In Love by Aria Taylor
North Park Collegiate Vocational School
Katerina’s Letters by Sophie Vandenbrink
Pauline Johnson Collegiate and Vocational School
The Landline by Rylin Ward
Waterford District High School