Congratulations to this year’s winners!

First Place: Konichiwa, Lillian Michiko Blakey

Second Place:  Hard to Believe, Raymond Nakamura

Third Place: Making Miso Shiru, Mariko Obokata

Congratulations to this year’s winners! Thank you to all who participated in this year’s contest!

We received an amazing handful of short stories that were carefully read and judged by our three esteemed judges, Lynne Kutsukake, Rui Umezawa and Jennifer Hashimoto. Look out for the winning stories to be published in the next three issues of the Nikkei Voice. As well, look forward to more of the short stories being published in the Short Story Anthology later this year.

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With exciting prizes from our sponsors, and a chance to see your work published in the newspaper and for your story to be read by our esteemed judges. This years prizes include a Kobo Aura H2O from our sponsor Kobo, and over $300 in books from our book sponsor, Penguin Random House Canada.

This year’s contest judges are esteemed and talented members of the Japanese-Canadian community. Lynne Kutsukake, author of The Translation of Love, Rui Umezawa, author of The Truth About Death and Dying and Jennifer Hashimoto, owner of Nikkei Books all bring their strong skills and perspectives in literature and story-telling to the judges’ panel.

Thank you to our judges for taking the time to be a part of this contest. Thank you as well to our sponsors Kobo, for providing a Kobo Aura H2O e-reader and Penguin Random House Canada for providing the books as prizes for the contest winners.

The top three stories will be published in Nikkei Voice’s February, March and April issues.

First Prize

Kobo Aura H2O e-reader courtesy of Kobo. Signed copy of The Translation of Love, by Lynne Kutsukake, The Rain Ascends, by Joy Kogawa, Obasan, by Joy Kogawa, 1Q84, by Haruki Murakami, The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, by Haruki Murakami and What I Talk About When I Talk About Running: A Memoir, by Haruki Murakami courtesy of Penguin Random House Canada.

Second Prize

The Translation of Love, by Lynne Kutsukake, Never Let me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day, by Kazuo Ishiguro, The Buried Giant, by Kazuo Ishiguro, One Hundred Million Hearts, by Kerri Sakamoto and the Electrical Field, by Kerri Sakamoto courtesy of Penguin Random House Canada.

Third Prize

Signed copy of Strange Light Afar, Rui Umezawa, Asahi: A Legend in Baseball; A Legacy from the Japanese Canadian Baseball Team to its Heirs, by Pat Adachi, Saving Montgomery Sole, by Mariko Tamaki and The Truth About Death and Dying by Rui Umezawa, courtesy of Penguin Random House Canada.

Download last year’s anthology

Short Story Contest Details

Nikkei Voice is seeking authors who want to be published in our newspaper. We accept short stories both fiction and non-fiction up to 1,500 words. Any stories that exceed the word count will be disqualified. Short stories must not have been published before.

Science fiction, science fact, a memoir, or noir, we are looking for writers to be as creative as possible and we encourage writers to think creatively when submitting their stories to the contest.

The submission period for the short story contest this year begins on September 1st and end at midnight on November 21st. Contest winners will be notified on January 10th, but all entrants will be contacted by staff.

And entry form located below, please fill it out and submit it with an electronic copy of your story. Email in your submission to editor (at) nikkeivoice (dot) ca.

More news about the contest will follow, so keep an eye on Nikkei Voice’s Facebook and Twitter for further developments.