The 2017 Shakespeare Selfie Student Writing Challenge: Winners and finalists
Shakespeare Selfie is a writing competition that challenges students to write a soliloquy or monologue in the voice of a Shakespearean character based on a prominent news, pop culture or current affairs event from the last year (April 2016 to April 2017). Over 600 students from across Canada entered the 2017 challenge, writing about gender equality, the Syrian Civil War, the Super Bowl, among many other topics.
Award-winning YA author Kenneth Oppel, whose books include The Nest, Every Hidden Thing and the Silverwing trilogy, chose Ali Nelson's That Something Wicked... as the Grades 7 to 9 category winner and Emma George's Naught is Discernible Within This Place as the Grades 10 to 12 category winner.
Check out the work of the two winners and our 2017 finalists below.
Grades 7 to 9 category
- Winner: That Something Wicked... by Ali Nelson
- Not a Commodity by Zoe Kortje
- John Scott, All Star by Veronica Xia
- Hippolyta's Summer Vacation by Gabrielle Wong
- Mortal Folly by Rosa Kontogianni
- Double Tap by Cherlin Chan
- Dream Eater by Brandon Yih
- The Storm by Yeeva Ly
- A Reputation Ravaged by Arya Cokic
- Super Bowl 51 by Caleb Lee
Grades 10 to 12 category
- Winner: Naught is Discernible within this Place by Emma George
- The Season of Anger and Lies by Miranda Madsen-Orr
- Is it better or is it bitter? by Josiane Décarie
- We are gods. by Tate Hussey
- Wolves in Civil Clothing by Kyle Hardy
- Daddy O Five by Lucy Auchinachie
- Pineapple Pizza, a Plight by Jasmine Ferreira
- Christmas Night by Ellen Zhang
- A Country Sinks Beneath the Yoke by Sarah Zhao
- Forgotten by the World by Arista Marthyman