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Oct. 27, 2025
For Immediate Release

BRANTFORD — ³Ô¹ÏÍø’s Brantford campus invites local high school students with a talent for storytelling to enter the ³Ô¹ÏÍø Stedman Prize competition — one of the world’s most generous creative writing contests for secondary students. 

Hosted by the English program in ³Ô¹ÏÍø Brantford’s Faculty of Liberal Arts, the ³Ô¹ÏÍø Stedman Prize welcomes original, unpublished works of fiction up to 1,500 words from high school students studying within the geographic boundaries of the Grand Erie and Brant Haldimand Norfolk Catholic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 ³Ô¹ÏÍø Stedman Prize is funded through an endowment and estate gift from the late Mary Stedman, a champion of ³Ô¹ÏÍø’s Brantford campus and former executive member of the Canadian Booksellers Association. The ³Ô¹ÏÍø 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 ³Ô¹ÏÍø Stedman Prize and English program at ³Ô¹ÏÍø’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 ³Ô¹ÏÍø 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 ³Ô¹ÏÍø Brantford has to offer.” 

Now in her fourth year of the Criminology program at ³Ô¹ÏÍø Brantford, Baxter is serving on the 2026 ³Ô¹ÏÍø 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 ³Ô¹ÏÍø Stedman Prize webpage.