The Writers' Union of Canada is pleased to announce that Julie Booker has won the sixteenth annual Short Prose Competition for Developing Writers, for the best story under 2,500 words, with her piece "Every Good Boy." The author will receive a $2,500 cash prize. In addition, the Union will submit the winning story and the other eleven finalists’ stories to three Canadian magazine publishers for their consideration.

The Union initiated the Short Prose Competition in 1993 in honour of its twentieth anniversary. The Competition aims to discover, encourage, and promote new writers of short prose who are not yet published in book format, in order to provide opportunity and exposure to developing writers. This year, eighteen Union members donated their time and expertise to read nearly 400 outstanding submissions and distill them into a longlist of one hundred fifteen stories. These stories went on to a second round of twenty-one readers who selected the finalists to pass on to the 2008 Jury: Joan Barfoot, Carellin Brooks, and David Helwig.

WINNER:
"Every Good Boy” by Julie Booker

The Jury noted that "‘Every Good Boy’ tells its story in a way that manages to be humane while catching everything it observes just a bit aslant. It offers a child's eye view of some of time's odd and awkward and funny and painful moments. It does a lot in a few pages, just as a story should.”

Julie Booker’s writing has appeared in journals, such as Prism International, The New Quarterly, Descant, and The Windsor Review, and in anthologies published by Coach House Press and Mansfield Press. She won honourable mention in the Prairie Fire Fiction Contest 2009. Her yet-to-be-published short story collection, Silver Hearts, was shortlisted for the John Metcalf-Leon Rooke Award in 2005, and she was a finalist in the 2006 Malahat Review Novella Contest.

FINALISTS
"The Falling," John Blackmore
"Blue Velvet," NJ Brown
"Adjusting," KerryAnn Cochrane
"No Love Comes Easy," Susan Di Laudo
"Hoofin’ At The Hobos’ Hoedown," Garth Holden
"Can’t Fool Me," Suzanne Keeptwo
"Tributary," Sarah Mian
"All the Voices Cry," Alice Petersen
"Going Solo," Munju Monique Ravindra
" Ruby Slippers," Arlene Smith
"The Rich Beggar Boy," Pradeep Solanki

READERS FOR THE COMPETITION
Rona Altrows, George Anthony, Diane Baker-Mason, Clayton Bailey,
Thelma Barer-Stein, Julie Barlow, Ann Birch, Lanny Boutin, Betty Cullen, Jane Drake, Ann Farrell, Kevin Marc Fournier, Carolyn Gossage, Nan Gregory, Sue Harper,
Ann C. Jamieson, Ken Klonsky, Monica Kulling, Sandra Livingston,
Anna Jean Mallinson, Micheline Maylor, Michael Mirolla, A. Mary Murphy,
Sheila Pennington, Kenneth Radu, Ahmad Saidullah,
Bill Schermbrucker, Elaine Slater, Eva Stachniak, Merna Summers, Royston Tester, Olga Dey-Bergmoser Thompson, Salimah Valiani, Carmel Vivier, J.A. Wainwright,
Nalini Warriar, Jessica Westhead, Marg Wilson, Betty Jane Wylie.

FINAL JURY
Joan Barfoot, Carellin Brooks, and David Helwig.

The Writers' Union of Canada is our country's national organization representing professional authors of books. Founded in 1973, the Union is dedicated to fostering writing in Canada, and promoting the rights, freedoms, and economic well being of all writers. For more information, please visit www.writersunion.ca.

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For additional information:
Nancy MacLeod, Competitions Coordinator
The Writers’ Union of Canada
416-703-8982 Ext. 226
competitions@writersunion.ca