Local teen wins CBC's First Page contest with story about climate change and government corruption
'You never expect to win something like this,' Claire Bisch says
Where do you see the world 150 years from now?
That was the prompt for this year's CBC's First Page Writing contest. The contest challenges young writers to submit the first page, approximately 300 to 400 words of a story that envisions a trend or issue in the year 2175.
This year, the winner in the Grade 7 to 9 Canada category was Claire Bisch, 15, who attends Kitchener Waterloo Collegiate and Vocational Institute in Kitchener.
Her winning page is called You Will Not Remember.
She spoke with CBC K-W's The Morning Edition host Craig Norris about the win and her writing.
Craig Norris: Tell us about You Will Not Remember and then the world you envisioned.
Claire Bisch: It's about climate change and government corruption.
My main protagonist, she works for this lab where she alters people's memories for the government and she starts to feel a little bit guilty for altering these people's memories.
She's with this one woman replacing her memories and in her memory file, she sees this green city and she starts to question everything the government has ever told her and everything she's ever known.
Norris: Did this idea immediately hit you when you saw the writing prompt? Or did you have to sit there and really think about it a lot before you started writing?
Bisch: I feel like it was a little bit of both, honestly. I really love to write short bits of stories and when I saw the CBC contest, I really wanted to write something for it, so I started brainstorming an idea.
Norris: You said it's about climate change and government corruption. That sounds kind of real life to me. Were there any real life inspirations in any of this?
Bisch: I would say I was really inspired by dystopian novels, not so much my own life.
Norris: Is this your first time ever entering a writing contest?
Bisch: I've been entering writing contests for about four years now and this is my first big win.
Norris: What went through your mind when you found out you had won?
Bisch: I was really shocked because you never expect to win something like this, and so I was really, really happy to be recognized for my work.
Norris: How did you find out? How do they let people know they won?
Bisch: By email. So I opened my inbox and I saw this email and I was just really, really happy and really shocked at the same time.
Norris: You said you enjoy writing little things and snippets of stories and things like that. Why is that? What do you enjoy about the process of writing?
Bisch: I really love how I'm able to create kind of this new world that also kind of mirrors my own experiences and how you can just create these very different things. You can create something that's more like action-packed or something sentimental.
Norris: You're a big reader?
Bisch: Yeah.
Norris: Dystopian stuff is your fave.
Bisch: Yeah, one of my favourites.
Norris: What else do you read?
Bisch: I love all genres of books. My favourite dystopian series are probably like The Hunger Games, Divergent.
Norris: Is writing something that you are constantly doing?
Bisch: Yeah, I'm always typing a new story on my computer or writing down a new idea.
Norris: Do you think you're going to write something more fleshed out and longer?
Bisch: Yeah, I love to write short stories that are a bit longer.
LISTEN | Local high school student wins CBC First Page writing contest:
