Eligibility Criteria and Guidelines: Speaker's Award for Youth Writers

Eligibility Criteria and Guidelines

  • Writers must be in grades 7 to 12.
  • Writers must reside in Ontario and attend school in Ontario.
  • Original fiction and non-fiction submissions will be accepted. 
  • Poetry will not be accepted.
  • Academic essays will not be accepted.
  • Short stories or personal essays must be between 500 and 2500 words in length.
  • Entries will be judged on the basis of originality, style, general presentation, as well as spelling and grammar.
  • Submissions will be accepted through an online application.
  • Submissions will be accepted from individual writers and from teachers on behalf of their students. Teachers may submit up to ten personal essays/short stories per class, but no more than one per student. 
  • Only one submission per writer will be accepted.