High School Flash Fiction Contest

The future of writing has arrived.

The Faculty of Media, Creative Arts and Design’s Bachelor of Creative & Professional Writing (BCPW) program is excited to bring you the five 2025 winners of its annual High School Flash Fiction Contest.

The contest accepted short, short stories from secondary school students of all grade-levels from across the province of Ontario, and this year’s contest was judged by celebrated writers David Brock, Kathy Friedman and Meaghan Strimas. All three judges are both fulltime faculty members in the BCPW program.

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In addition to the contest winners, the judges would also like to give a big shout out to the five students who were selected as honorable mentions:

• Abeera Islam’s “What’s for Dinner, Maa?” (Martingrove Collegiate Institute)

• Will Hendry’s “To the Snow” (Waterloo-Oxford Secondary School)

• Ella Olszewska’s “The Lock” (St. Mary Catholic School)

• Khadijah Salissou “Maiden Mother Crone” (Downsview Secondary School)

• Sarah-Marie Scale’s “Blue Ribbon Affairs” (Arthur Voaden Secondary School)

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Special thanks to Guillermo Acosta, Senior Dean of the Faculty of Media, Creative Arts & Design (FMCAD), Nicola Winstanley, Associate Dean for Journalism, Acting, Writing & Media (FMCAD), and Kilby Smith-McGregor, designer extraordinaire. A thank you, too, to all the high-school teachers and guidance counsellors who helped make this year’s contest a success.