Contest winners were announced at the WCDR Annual General Meeting on June 14, 2003. Winners in each category received a cash prize and certificate.

1st Place: Irene Livingston: "Still Here"
(Vancouver, BC.)

Irene Livingston has been published in Canada, U.S. England, Australia and NZ., and has won the Leacock Award for Poetry. She has written a novel "Naked in a Glass-Blue Lake", a short story series, and poetry collection. Her picture book, Finklehopper Frog (Tricycle Press, Berkeley CA) was published in April 2003.

2nd Place: Carol L. MacKay: "Ago"
(Bawlf, AB.)

As a teenager living in Ryley, Alberta, Carol L. MacKay spent her babysitting money on a copy of Monty Reid's poetry collection, Life of Ryley, which gave her the notion that there just might be something to write about in her own backyard. Her poems have recently appeared in The Fiddlehead, Freefall, and Prairie Journal. Twenty years later, Carol writes from Bawlf, Alberta, a village twenty minutes down the road from her hometown.

Tie 3rd Place: Dorothea Helms: "Missing Heartbeats"
(Sunderland, ON.)
and
Caitlin Reid: "The bench is grey in the black night"
(Montreal, PQ)

Dorothea Helms is a freelance writer/editor who has spent most of her 10-year professional career writing non-fiction and prose humour. Since venturing into the world of poetry three years ago, she has had poems published in Legacy (the Canadian Authors' Association millennium poetry anthology) and in lichen literary journal.

Caitlin Reid was born in Montreal and is currently attending the creative writing program at the University of British Columbia. She writes mainly non-fiction and poetry and has just completed a playful picture book about sex for adults. Thanks to friends and family.

5th Place: Ken Kucharic: "A Reflection of Fire in a Mirror of Gas"
(Bowmanville, ON.)

Ken Kucharic grew up in Niagara-on-the-Lake, where his family still resides. In 1998 he graduated from Brock University with an Honours B.A. in English Literature. He and his wife Briar now live in Bowmanville with their new son Auden. Ken currently works as a purchasing agent for Yorkville Sound where he imports and develops musical equipment. He is also a contributing writer for Long and McQuade Magazine.

Tie 6th Place: Caitlin Reid: "Flatbush, Brooklyn"
(Montreal, PQ)
and
Anne Louise Currie: "An Easier Way?"
(Oshawa, ON.)

Anne Louise Currie is a long-time, bottom-drawer poet, living and working in Oshawa, Ontario. Though she has been passionate about poetry, since her father read her Blake's, Tyger, Tyger as a small child, she has only recently begun pulling the poems out of the bottom drawer and sending them off into the world. When she's not writing poetry, she runs her own web development company, Digital Ripple.

1st Place: Carissa Di Gangi: "thursday, 2.31 pm"
(Ottawa, ON)

Carissa Di Gangi is a grade eleven student enrolled in Canterbury High School's Literary Arts Programme in Ottawa. An avid reader, writer, rower and coxie, she surrounds herself with music, smiling faces and green growing things. Carissa doesn't think she'll ever stop writing.

2nd Place: Jehangir Saleh: "I Love You"
(Toronto, ON)

Jehangir Saleh has placed in numerous writing competitions, including an honourable mention in Princeton University's 2002 Poetry Prize. When he is not writing, he is tutoring English, volunteering, drinking (too much) coffee and trying to figure out how calculus works. Jehangir plans to attend Ryerson's Arts and Contemporary Studies in the fall

3rd Place: Julianne Yip: "'Impromptu', a duet on the brink of insight"
(Calgary, AB)

Julianne Yip is fifteen years old and lives in Calgary, AB. She has been writing since she was eight years old and in 2001, she won the Isabelle Miller Award. Julianne loves to read, write, draw, play the piano and hang out with her friends. She also loves Bernard Callebaut chocolate, magnet poetry, photography and fortune cookies. In between her volleyball practices and piano lessons, Julianne continues to write.

4th Place: Sarah J. Poynter: "She Feels"
(Whitby, ON )

Sarah is twelve years old. She likes to write poems, read and play hockey. She also likes animals.

5th Place Carissa Di Gangi: "reflecting on Grandma who is losing her memory, and knowing"
(Ottawa, ON)

1st Place: Laura Brogan for "The Whale"
(Aurora, ON – 11 years when written)

My name is Laura Brogran and I am twelve years old. I like to read and write poems and stories. I play the piano and I like to play hockey and tennis.

2nd Place: Amelia Edmunds for "Gramma"
(Whitby, ON- 9 years when written)

Amelia is eleven years old. This poem was written two years ago for her grandmother's birthday present. From the time Amelia began talking, she has demonstrated enthusiasm for literature. Once old enough to write, her enthusiasm developed into a passion for writing. Her favourite topics include family, friends, and animals.

3rd Place: Michael Martini for "The Yucky Bluky Dinner"
(Ajax, ON – 8 years when written)

Michael is nine years old and in grade three. He enjoys writing stories and poems and playing soccer.

4th Place: Danitha Kanagavaratha for "My Imaginery Friend" (Scarborough, ON - 8 years when written) Danitha is nine years old, attends school in Scarborough, and enjoys sports, including badminton, soccer, and hockey. Her favourite subjects are math and science, and she writes lots of poetry and stories.

Milan Parab is from St. John's, Newfoundland, and is currently completing his Bachelor of Education at Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador. He is a co-founder and managing editor for Signal - a literary arts magazine.

Dorothy Sjöholm is a retired English teacher who lives in Toronto where she works as a freelance writer and editor. Her poems have appeared in various literary journals, anthologies, and small press publications, placed second in the Dan Sullivan Poetry Contest, 2000, and first in TOPS' "Poet and the PC" contest, 2003. She was delighted to be invited to assist with the judging of this year's Dan Sullivan Contest.

Priscila Uppal is a poet and fiction writer born in Ottawa and currently living in Toronto. She has published three collections of poetry: How to Draw Blood From a Stone (1998), Confessions of a Fertility Expert (1999), and Pretending to Die (2001), all with Exile Editions. She has also published fiction and/or poetry in national and international magazines. Her first novel, The Divine Economy of Salvation, was published to critical acclaim by Doubleday Canada in February 2002 and by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill in the US in October 2002. The novel is soon to be translated into Dutch and Greek and French for release in the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, and France. She is also a Professor of Humanities at York University. Her new poetry collection Breaking News will be released in the fall of 2003, and she is at work on a new novel, a collection of short stories, and a non-fiction project.

Stuart Ross has sold poetry on the streets of Toronto, edited literary magazines, and is co-founder of the Toronto Small Press Fair. A prolific writer/performer/collaborator, he has read at hundreds of venues, and his work has appeared in journals in Canada and the U.S. His work includes the poetry collections Farmer Gloomy's New Hybrid (ECW Press, 1999), Razovsky At Peace (ECW Press, 2001).and a hardcover collection, Hey, Crumbling Balcony! Poems New & Selected. (ECW Press, 2003).as well as Surreal Estate: 13 Canadian Poets Under the Influence (The Mercury Press, 2003).Stuart will be teaching poetry workshops at Centauri Arts this August.

Andrea Stone is a former English teacher, and is currently a Ph.D candidate in English Literature at the University of Toronto. Her poetry has appeared in various publications including Diviners, The Writing Space Journal, and lichen. She is a poetry editor with lichen literary journal.