Call for Submissions: University-wide Creative Writing Competition open to all YorkU students. Apply now!
The annual President’s Creative Writing Awards, the Lorna Marsden Prize for Creative Writing in French, the Daniel Whittaker-Van Dusen Prize for Emerging Poets and the Richard Teleky Short Fiction Prize are accepting unpublished and original writing submissions.
The President’s Awards and the Lorna Marsden Prize are open to all full or part time York University undergraduate students only. The Daniel Whittaker-Van Dusen and Richard Teleky prizes are open to both undergraduate and graduate students.
The President’s Creative Writing Awards is looking for submissions in the following three categories: poetry, short fiction, and creative nonfiction.
Please note that creative nonfiction is a new category, as of 2025-26, which can include personal essays, memoir, autocriticism, travel writing, and literary journalism, as well as any other form of narrative prose nonfiction that is neither reportage nor academic work.
Submissions for the Lorna Marsden Prize for Creative Writing in French are accepted in any of the above creative genres, as long as the work is written in French.
Any undergraduate submissions to the President’s Awards in poetry will automatically also be considered for the Whittaker-Van Dusen Prize. Any undergraduate submissions to the President’s Awards in short fiction will automatically also be considered for the Teleky Prize.
There is no minimum or maximum length requirement in each category, but submissions must fall within the above genres. The awards are not open to novels or opera librettos, for example. Contestants may enter a writing piece in each category but may not submit more than one entry in each category.
The winning prize in each category for the President’s Awards will receive $1,300 and the winner of the Lorna Marsden Prize will receive $1,000. The Richard Teleky Prize carries an award of $2,000 and the Whittaker-Van Dusen Prize winner will receive $1,200.
The competition results will be announced in the spring, and prizes will be awarded at the annual Creative Writing Awards reception. Names will be published in yFile and on the English Department and Creative Writing Program website.
The deadline for online submissions is January 9th, 2026. For additional information, submission requirements, contest rules and how to apply, please click here.
For further questions, contact Michelle Anacleto, Creative Writing Program Assistant, by email at michana@yorku.ca.