Penguin Random House Canada Student Award For Fiction

This award is exclusively for fiction, either in the form of a short story or a novel excerpt. The competition for this award is open to all creative writing students who have taken a course in the previous year. One winner will receive a prize of $2,500 annually. Two finalists will also be selected and will receive prizes of $1,000 each. The winner and finalists will be published in a chapbook.

2026 Entry Guidelines

1. This award is open to students who started a creative writing course at the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies within the period of May 1, 2025, to April 30, 2026.
2. The entry form must accompany the submission.
3. Only one entry per student per student will be accepted.
4. Submissions must be work of fiction (including story and novel excerpts).
5. Entries must consist of a maximum of 7,000 words. Entries exceeding this limit will not be considered.
6. Entries must be unpublished and not currently under consideration by a publisher either in print or online.
7. All pages must be numbered.
8. Please save the document with your name and student number in the file name, using the format of LastName_StudentNumber_PRHC. To ensure impartial judging, there should be no identifying marks contained in the body of the document.
9. Deadline: Submissions must be received by May 3, 2026. Entries received after the deadline will not be accepted.
10. The School of Continuing Studies reserves the right to publish the award-winning entry in its entirety or excerpt on our website and/or other media for the promotion of the competition. To receive the award the winner will enter into a contract with the School of Continuing Studies for the rights to use the award-winning material. Copyright will remain with the winner.

Note: Only award winners and finalists will be contacted

View the 2025 chapbook