Finalists to be honoured evening of November 12 at Cabaret Lion d’Or
The Quebec Writers’ Federation is pleased to announce the finalists for the 2024 QWF College Writers Award!
The College Writers Award is given to one college student in recognition of outstanding literary achievement, be it in the form of a poem, short story, or short piece of non-fiction. Known as QWF Prize for Young Writers from 2017 to 2020, the award is open to students enrolled at one of the prize’s sponsor colleges (Champlain, Dawson, Heritage, John Abbott, Marianopolis, and Vanier) during the academic year of the competition.
The winner will be announced at the 2024 QWF Literary Awards Gala on Tuesday, November 12 at Cabaret Lion d’Or. The ceremony will begin at 8:00 p.m., preceded by a cocktail reception from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
The 2024 College Writers Award Finalists
Clara Frey
“Man Crush”
Dawson College
Clara Frey is a 19-year-old English literature student at McGill University and a recent graduate of Dawson College. Her favourite pastimes include writing poems on public transit, battling the urge to use ChatGPT for fear of losing the beauty of the written word, and spending money she doesn’t have on plant-milk lattes in independent coffee shops. If you look hard enough you’ll find a cat hair or two on her sweater and she is always hard-pressed to find a matching pair of socks. Clara has worked as a staff writer for Dawson’s student-run newspaper The Plant, and her poetry has been published in the Encore Poetry Anthology and Chouette Literary Magazine.
Maxence Gagné
“Echoes of Leïla”
Champlain College Saint-Lambert
Maxence Gagné is a student of Pure and Applied Sciences at Champlain College Saint-Lambert. Although cinema is his primary field of interest, literature has gained tremendous value to him during his college years. During his first two years at Champlain, he served as a jury member in the Prix littéraire des collégiens and the Prix collegial du cinema québécois. As a writer, he is mostly influenced by the novels and films of French author Marguerite Duras. He also recognizes the influences of Milan Kundera and Marcel Proust on his work.
Jessica Thebarge
“Static Before the Storm”
Heritage College
Jessica Thebarge is a student-athlete and aspiring writer from Gatineau, Québec. She is currently a second-year Liberal Arts student at Cegep Heritage College, where she received the 2023-2024 Liberal Arts Award. She is the creator and co-president of the Heritage Creative Writing Club. She enjoys exploring the limitless bounds of language through experimentation with the composition of songs, poems, and fiction.
The 2024 QWF Awards Gala
The winner of the 2024 College Writers Award will be announced at the 2024 QWF Awards Gala on Tuesday, November 12.
The gala will also unveil the winners of the 2024 QWF Literary Awards in fiction, non-fiction, first book, translation, poetry, playwriting, spoken word, and children’s and young adult literature.
The gala is open to the public and tickets are now available for purchase. A cocktail reception will be held from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m., followed by the awards ceremony at 8 p.m.
Tickets to the reception are $60 ($40 for full-time students) and include two glasses of wine, beer or non-alcoholic drink and admission to the awards ceremony. Tickets for the ceremony alone are $25 ($10 for full-time students).
Media Inquiries:
John Wickham, Communications Officer
(819) 319-9210
john@qwf.org