2024 Power of the Pen Winners

Power of the Pen Creative Writing Contest Award Winners 2021 book, beside a gold cup trophy of similar size

Congratulations to the 2024 Awardees and Honourable Mentions on their literary works. 
 

Poetry 

Age 12 

1st - Alana Chang, Knife
2nd - Aria D'Andrea, Mountains 

 
Age 13 

1st - Lars Vonk, Deep Down Under
2nd - Hunter Chrea, I'm Not Enough

Honourable Mentions: 
Lucia Mostacedo, Reader 

Age 14 

1st - Minjun Choi, GoGuardian
2nd - Olivia Haas, Traffic 

Honourable Mentions: 
Rachael Haveman, I Don't Want to Write any Poems Today
ALexis Pereira, Worth the Risk

Age 15 

1st - Sumayyah Satia, Give Peace to your Heart
2nd - Yamam Qays, Chamber of White
 
Honourable Mentions: 
Madeleine Hastings-Speck, We Were Just Kids
Josephine Bertrand, Standing Strong

Age 16 

1st - Jewels Snider, A Robin's Resilience
2nd - Hana Hvezda, Red on White

Honourable Mention:
Jade Chan, Rapid Relief

Age 17 

1st - Claire Weingartner, Red 
2nd- Marie Njoroge, Dandelions

Honourable Mentions: 
Ali Al- Nasih, Gentle Rain

Age 18 

1st - Meryanna Pedrousyan, Ink Incompatible with Paper
2nd - Megan Mills, Blitzed

Honourable Mentions: 
Chaim Evans, Life Through a Kaleidoscope

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Poetry (French) 

1st - Madeleine Hastings-Speck, Le Chanson de I'lsolation
2nd - Mikaela Pereira, Que mettries-vous dans votre valise?

Honourable Mention:
Evelina Romero, Quand Je Suis Seule

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Short Story 

Age 12 

1st - Anna Lohvynenko, First Place
2nd - Said Shahrouri, Belonging 
 

Honourable Mentions: 
Alyssa Filipe, A Merchant's Apprentice
 
Age 13 

1st - Addison Jonkman, The Native Way
2nd - Kerrington Groenewegen, Sound of Screams

Honourable Mentions: 
Jude Hill, No Surrender 
Joanne Zhang, Beatrice 
Ademidun Arimoro, An Old Friend 
Cheryl Yem, The Merge 
Jonah Kaplan, The War of the Burger Restaurants 
Bajrang Khanna, Unbroken Bond 
Lyric Brown, Hippopotamus Story 
Jared Stassen, Too Young for War

Age 14 

1st - Sara Jayne Harsevoort, The Expulsion of the Acadians
2nd - Brenna Hall, A New Life

Honourable Mentions: 
Jacob Veldpaus, Tut’s Curse 
Grace Kikkert, The Crash 
Michael Lutz, Within 
Charlotte Maertens, 8 Minutes 
Rachael Haveman, Frederick’s Flowers

Age 15 

1st - Aibhlin Rogers, Unheard of 
2nd - Asher Berkelaar, The Tachyon Paradox

Honourable Mention:
Thomas Luong, The Grieving Bench

Age 16 

1st – Katelyn Marshall-Zyba, Devil’s Ridge 
2nd – Madison Heise, True Beauty  

Age 17 

1st – Mia Antonelli, My Greatest Friend Is My Greatest Revenge 
2nd – Olivia Belrose, The Sum of Zero 

Age 18 

1st – Chaim Evans, Love at Long Last 
2nd – Kyra Bredenhof, Unearthing

Honourable Mention:
Harshvi Patel, The Secret Goldfish
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Short Story (French) 

1st – Dianne Tomara,Le voyage vers le rêve canadien 
2nd – Joshua Middleton, Choisir mon propre chemin 

Honourable Mentions: 
Joshua Middleton, Echapper Nous Meme

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The Hamilton Association Young Poet's Award Winner: 
To Be Announced

Maitland Banting Silver Quill Award Winner:
To Be Announced

For previous years, please visit the Local History & Archives Department at the 3rd floor of the Central Library.