The judging panel has announced the winners of the 2022 Okanagan Young Writers’ Awards (OYWA), and the public is invited to attend the award ceremony and reading on Jan. 15 at ORL Mission Branch from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm.
The chair of the inaugural OWYA, Jadon Dick, said there was "an amazing turnout" with over 50 submissions from nearly 20 different schools.
The OYWA were founded to promote excellence in writing for youth ages 14 to 19 and are open to those who are attending school.
Photo Credit: OYWA
“It’s a great opportunity to support local writers in our region,” said Dick, “we are highlighting these submissions and it’s a really great way to encourage the creatives of the future!”
In addition to the celebratory event, the OYWA Committee has created a “Best of” collection book featuring both winning submissions and a selection of honourable mentions for the poetry and fiction categories.
Photo Credit: OYWA
The poetry winners include Emma Unruh of UBC Okanagan in first place, Jeremy Bader of Okanagan College (Vernon campus) in second place and Anna Biernacki of Salmon Arm Secondary School in third place.
Poetry honourable mentions were awarded to Aidan Clancy, Ava Sanderson, Jack Rogers, Ky Johnson and Rogan Sweeney.
The fiction winners include Jeremy Bader in first place, Ray Davie of Kelowna Secondary School in second place and Caileigh Watson of Heritage Christian Online School in third place.
Alice Melikhanov, Coby Campbell, James Dolera, Ky Johnson, Meghan Boka and Noémie Schirrer received honourable mentions in fiction.
The “Best of” collection can be purchased from Okanagan Publishing House with free local shipping or via ebook through Amazon.ca.
All proceeds from the 146 page volume go towards supporting next years’ OYWA.
