Toronto Star and Toronto Public Library Launch 2014 Short Story Contest

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Jan. 3, 2014) - Do you have a story that you are eager to share with readers across the city, around the province and throughout the country?

If you have such a story, then the 2014 Toronto Star Short Story Contest is your chance to tell your story and make readers laugh with joy or cry with sadness, cheer for an underdog, reflect on a personal relationship or think about an important issue of our times.

The annual contest, considered the largest and most lucrative in Canada and one of the top competitions in North America, kicks off Saturday, January 4. Submissions must be received by 5 p.m., Friday, February 28.

The contest is open for Ontario residents 16 or older. Entrants can write on any topic they want. Stories must be previously unpublished and not exceed 2,500 words, with a limit of one entry for each person.

The contest, now in its 36^th year, carries the biggest prize in Canada for a short story contest, with the first-place winner receiving $5,000 plus the tuition fee for the 30-week creative writing correspondence program at the Humber School for Writers, valued at approximately $3,000.

In addition to the first prize, there is a $2,000 second prize and a $1,000 third prize.

The competition is being launched in partnership with the Toronto Public Library and the Humber School for Writers.

"Toronto Public Library is so pleased to continue its support of this contest," City Librarian Jane Pyper said. "In a year that saw our greatest practitioner of this art form - Alice Munro - win the Nobel Prize for Literature, it's even more fitting that we encourage aspiring short story writers. Good luck to everyone who enters."

The winners will be selected by a panel of distinguished judges, including Pyper, Heather Birrell, an award-winning Toronto author, Dianne Rinehart, books and visual arts editor for the Toronto Star and Richard Ouzounian, theatre critic for the Toronto Star and author of six books.

The judges will each read 25 to 50 stories, after a Humber School for Writing panel has narrowed the submissions to a shortlist.

Winners will be announced in April during the Toronto Public Library's annual reading festival, Keep Toronto Reading. Their stories will be published in the Toronto Star, Canada's largest newspaper.

For full contest rules, please visit www.thestar.com/contests.

About the Toronto Star

The Toronto Star, founded in 1892, is read in print and online (thestar.com) by 3.0 million readers every week. The Toronto Star is a division of Star Media Group, which includes Toronto.com, Torstar Syndication Services and The Grid city magazine. Star Media Group also includes the majority-owned Metro free daily newspapers in Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax, Winnipeg, Regina, Saskatoon and London, and the Chinese language newspaper Sing Tao. Star Media Group is a division of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, which is a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation.

About Toronto Public Library:

Toronto Public Library is one of the world's busiest urban public library systems. Every year, 19 million people visit our branches in neighbourhoods across the city and borrow over 32 million items. To learn more about Toronto Public Library, visit our website at torontopubliclibrary.ca or call Answerline at 416-393-7131. To get the most current updates on what's happening at the library, follow us on Twitter@torontolibrary.