Call for entries: Laurier Stedman Prize to award $13,000 in prizes to young storytellers

Oct. 27, 2025
For Immediate Release

BRANTFORD — Wilfrid Laurier University’s Brantford campus invites local high school students with a talent for storytelling to enter the Laurier Stedman Prize competition — one of the world’s most generous creative writing contests for secondary students. 

Hosted by the English program in Laurier Brantford’s Faculty of Liberal Arts, the Laurier Stedman Prize welcomes original, unpublished works of fiction up to 1,500 words from high school students studying within the geographic boundaries of the Grand Erie and Brant Haldimand Norfolk Catholic District school boards, including those attending private, alternative or home schools. 

The biennial competition will award a total of $13,000 in prizes, including $3,500 for first place, $2,500 each to two second-place winners and $1,500 each to three third-place winners. Prizes will be presented at a ceremony in May 2026. 

Established in 2018, the Laurier Stedman Prize is funded through an endowment and estate gift from the late Mary Stedman, a champion of Laurier’s Brantford campus and former executive member of the Canadian Booksellers Association. The Laurier Stedman Prize honours Stedman’s lifelong dedication to celebrating and promoting arts and culture.  

“We are grateful to the late Mary Stedman, whose generosity enables us to inspire, celebrate and develop young storytellers in our region through this prize,” said Associate Professor Lisa Wood, coordinator of both the Laurier Stedman Prize and English program at Laurier’s Brantford campus. 

Entries are judged anonymously by a series of sub-juries, with the top 10 stories advancing to a final jury of award-winning authors, academics and previous prize winners.  

“Winning the Laurier Stedman Prize is a moment of validation for a young writer,” said Mya Baxter, who placed in the top 10 in 2022 as a student at Simcoe’s Holy Trinity Catholic High School. “It inspired me to keep writing and encouraged me to explore the programs that Laurier Brantford has to offer.” 

Now in her fourth year of the Criminology program at Laurier Brantford, Baxter is serving on the 2026 Laurier Stedman Prize committee as a juror.  

“My advice for students entering the contest is to write from your heart and be true to your voice,” said Baxter. 

Students interested in entering are encouraged to speak with their English teachers, who coordinate submissions for the contest at participating secondary schools. For more information, including competition deadlines, visit the Laurier Stedman Prize webpage.