Lillian Kroll Prize in Creative Writing

A prize of $375 is awarded competitively to an undergraduate student (including students at the affiliated colleges) who exhibits a developing talent for creative writing on the basis of a portfolio of submitted writings (prose, fiction, poetry or drama) that has not so far been published or won an award in any other competition. Tenable once.

This award was made available by Mr. B. Franklin Shostack and Dr. Zane Cohen in memory of the late Lillian Kroll.

Contest opens Wednesday, January 1, 2025.

Contest Rules

  1. Entries must be submitted no later than midnight on Friday, January 31, 2025.
  2. Participants must be full-time students registered in any undergraduate (baccalaureate) program at Western University, including Affiliates.
  3. Previous first-prize winners are not eligible.
  4. Entries to be submitted by email in PDF format to: uenglish@uwo.ca.
  5. Submission must include a separate cover page marked Lillian Kroll Prize in Creative Writing with the following information:
    • your name
    • student number (NO SPACES)
    • email address
    • permanent mailing address
    • telephone number
    • contest name: Lillian Kroll Prize in Creative Writing
  6. Include the cover page within the same document/pdf file as the creative work (one file in total to be submitted).
  7. Do not include any personally identifiable information on the creative work itself.
  8. Include the title of the submission on the creative work.
  9. Submissions will be coded by a contest organizer who is not a judge.
  10. Participants must submit one entry per person, of either prose, fiction, poetry or drama which will be adjudicated on the basis of the quality of the writing submitted, not its quantity.
  11. You should submit work that has not hitherto been published or won an award in any other competition. One of the following would be a suitable submission:
    • a poem, or a brief series of linked poems
    • a one-act play, or scenes from a longer work
    • a short story or novella, or selections from a longer work of fiction
  12. The winner will be notified by email by the end of April 2025.
  13. The results will be posted on the Department of English and Writing Studies website and social media channels.

Inquiries

uenglish@uwo.ca

PREVIOUS RECIPIENTS

Year First prize Title Honourable Mention Title Adjudicators
2024 Mary Murdoch "Keep the Water Out of Your Lungs" Sebastian Karall "Poem for Angels" Professors Aaron Schneider and Jamie Johnston
2023 Gray Brogden "The Girl in the Hopper Painting" Amber McNaughton "I am My Mother, my Mother is Me" Professors Mark McDayter and Alison Lee
2022 Benjamin Maharaj "Sea Otters in Monterey Bay" Carly Pews "Cigarettes" Professors Aaron Schneider and Mark McDayter
2021 Carly Pews "Reflections: A Conversation" Hafsah Jasat "Migraine Attack (Pain) and Breathe in, Breath out (Depression)" Professors Aaron Schneider and Jo Devereux
2020 Gabrielle Drolet "In Conversation with Emily Dickinson: Two Poems" Liam Blackley and Amy White "The House Guest" and "Stone" Professors Aaron Schneider and James Purkis
2019 Elizabeth Sak "Room for Rent" Madeleine Ghesquiere and Gabrielle Drolet "The Stories We Tell" and "Grass" Professors Jamie Johnston and Aaron Schneider
2018 Camille Intson "Marty and Joel and the Edge of Chaos" Professors Michael Fox and Jamie Johnston
2017 Jasmeen Anjali Siddiqui "Yelling All the Way to Hell" Professors Michael Fox and Jamie Johnston
2016 Erica McKeen "Our Eyes, Our Tongue" Professors Alison Conway and Kathleen Fraser
2015 Amy Wang "Reverse Migration" Professors Larry Garber and Manina Jones
2014 Robert Norsworthy "Trial and Vegetation" Professors Larry Garber and Allan Pero
2013 Alexander Martin "Xylophagia" Professors Larry Garber and Allan Pero
2012 Erin Lamotte Selected Poems Professors Larry Garber and Allan Pero
2011 John Vincent "House of Broken Mirrors" Professors Larry Garber and Allan Pero
2010 Mark MacKichan "The Social Scenes of Lonely Folks" Professors Larry Garber and Allan Pero
2009 Elizabeth Blackall "Mermaid in the Moon" Professors Larry Garber and Allan Pero
2008 Grace Vermeer "Genesis: Three Poems" Professors Larry Garber and Manina Jones
2007 Meghan Adams "Knot Theory" Professor Larry Garber and Joan Barfoot, Writer-in-Residence
Deirdra Wadden "The Ferry Passage" Professor Larry Garber and Joan Barfoot, Writer-in-Residence
2006 Andrew MacDonald "Ink" Professors Larry Garber and Allan Pero
2005 Asher Ghaffar "Home is Multilateral" Professor Larry Garber and Lola Tostevin, Writer-in-Residence
2002 Lianne Todorovic "The Hydra Chronicles" Professor Larry Garber and Jan Horner, Writer-in-Residence
2001 Kat Evans "DEADDOSPEAK" Professors Larry Garber and Manina Jones
1996 Jillian Horton
1992 Lou D'Sousa "Taking Care"