21 students from across Canada shortlisted for The First Page student writing challenge!

Twenty-one young writers from across Canada have been chosen as finalists for The First Page student writing challenge, which asked Grades 7 to 12 students to write the first page of a novel set 150 years in the future.

Students imagined how current events and trends — from the ethics of artificial intelligence to climate change — have played out in the year 2175.

• Read about the 2025 The First Page student writing challenge

The 21 finalists were chosen from about 1,000 entries submitted in 2025. The winners will be selected by YA author S.K. Ali and be announced on June 12. 

You can read the shortlisted entries below.

Grades 7 to 9 category finalists

• You Will Not Remember by Claire Bisch, 14, from Waterloo, Ont.
• The Last Human Athlete by Mehr Chandhok, 14, from Edmonton
• The City of Numa by Jacob Fallah, 14, from West Vancouver, B.C.
• Copy 097 by Amy Huang, 14, from Edmonton
• The Way It Has To Be by Aisling Knight, 14, from Calgary
• Wilted Reality by Averie Lauren Lee, 13, from Toronto
• The Glass Cage by Ayo Matuluko, 14, from Halifax
• The Live Spectacle by Ranti Oyebode, 14, from LaSalle, Ont.
• My Tree by Eydie Padfield, 15, from Ottawa
• The Unnatural Creature Extermination Project by Angela Zhang, 12, from Calgary

Grades 10 to 12 category finalists

• Angel or the Devil by Erin Bergman, 18, from Edmonton
• The Last Free Election by Lara Vicky Coutinho, 16, from Toronto
• Day of Rebirth by Sophie Ding, 17, from Markham, Ont.
• Digital Silence by Leila Djuric, 17, from Toronto
• Loan Shark by Isioma Efobi, 16, from Airdrie, Alta.
• Our Hidden Life at Camp Tamarack by Laurel Gilchrist, 15, from Edmonton
• Bring Me a Medic by Alice Kim, 16, London, Ont.
• The Red Annihilation by Ellie Leung, 15, from Newmarket, Ont. 
• Harbourer of Apollo by Alice Reierson, 15, from Calgary
• The Lightkeepers of the Mind by Kaylee Selvarajah, 15, from Vaughan, Ont.
• Toronto by Jessica Yang, 16, from Richmond Hill, Ont.

Bestselling YA and children's writer S.K. Ali will select two winners, one from each category, from the shortlists. Her books include the YA novels Saints and Misfits, Love from A to Z and Love from Mecca to Medina. She has also ventured into children's books with her picture book The Proudest Blue and the middle-grade anthology she co-edited, Once Upon an Eid which won the Middle East Book Honor Award in 2020. 

Her latest novel explores a different genre to everything she has done before — dystopian science fiction. In Fledgling: The Keeper's Records of Revolution, the first of a YA duology, two Earths are on the brink of self destruction.

• From Judy Blume to Edward Said, these are the writers that superstar YA author S.K. Ali loved reading

Winners will receive...

• A one-year subscription to OwlCrate, which sends fresh boxes of books to young readers across Canada on a monthly basis.
• 50 free YA books for their school library

You can read the complete rules and regulations here.

Last year's winners were Toronto's Anya Thadani in the Grades 7 to 9 category for Fixed and Kleefeld, Man's Hayley Peters in the Grades 10 to 12 for Forbidden Realities.

• Read last year's First Page Student writing challenge winners here