Toronto Star and Toronto Public Library Launch 2015 Short Story Contest

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Jan. 2, 2015) - Have you ever imagined yourself as a published author?

If you have, then the 2015 Toronto Star Short Story Contest offers you an excellent opportunity to show your skills as a writer and possibly see your story printed in the largest newspaper in Canada.

The annual contest, which attracts some 2,000 entries a year, is considered the largest and most lucrative in Canada and one of the top competitions in North America. It launches Saturday, January 3. All submissions must be received by 5 p.m., Friday, February 27, 2015.

The contest, now in its 37^th year, carries the biggest prize in Canada for a short story contest, with the first-place winner receiving $5,000, plus the tuition fee for the 30-week creative writing correspondence program at the Humber School for Writers, which has an approximate value of $3,000.

In addition, the second-place winner receives a cash prize of $2,000 and the third-place winner gets $1,000.

The contest is open to all Ontario residents 16 years of age or older. Entrants can write on any topic they want. Stories must be original, previously unpublished and no longer than 2,500 words. Entries are limited to one for each person.

This is the sixth consecutive year that the Toronto Public Library has been a partner with the Star in presenting the contest. The Humber School for Writers is once again this year also a partner in the contest.

"Fostering a culture of reading and supporting emerging writers is essential to fulfilling Toronto Public Library's mandate," City Librarian Vickery Bowles said. "The contest is a wonderful way to discover new voices and share them with Toronto readers."

A Humber School for Writers' panel will read all of the entries and narrow the submissions to a short list of 25-30 stories. The winners will be selected from the short list by a panel of distinguished judges, including Bowles, Heather Birrell, an award-winning Toronto author, Deborah Dundas, books editor for the Toronto Star, and Richard Ouzounian, theatre critic for the Star and author of six books.

Winners will be announced in April and their stories will be published in the Toronto Star, Canada's largest newspaper.

For full contest rules, please visit www.thestar.com/contests.

About the Toronto Star:

The Toronto Star, founded in 1892, is read in print and online (thestar.com) by 3.0 million readers every week. The Toronto Star is a division of Star Media Group, which includes Toronto.com, Torstar Syndication Services, the majority-owned Metro free daily newspapers in Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Halifax, and the Chinese language newspaper Sing Tao. Star Media Group is a division of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, which is a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation.

About Toronto Public Library:

Toronto Public Library is one of the world's busiest urban public library systems. Every year, 19 million people visit our branches in neighbourhoods across the city and borrow 32 million items. To learn more about Toronto Public Library, visit our website at torontopubliclibrary.ca or call Answerline at 416-393-7131. To get the most current updates on what's happening at the library, follow us on Twitter @torontolibrary.