Three-Day Novel Contest
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Three-Day Novel Contest is an annual
Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...
literary contest conducted in September of each year. The contest, which is open to writers from anywhere in the world, gives entrants three days to write a
novel A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...
. Writers are permitted to plan and outline their novel in advance, but the actual writing cannot begin until the contest's opening date, which is traditionally on
Labour Day Labour Day is an annual day of celebration of the labour movement and its labor rights, achievements. It has its origins in the trade union, labour union movement, specifically the Eight-hour day movement, eight-hour day movement, which advoca ...
weekend. The entries are then judged by a panel, which announces its winning selection early in the following year, and the winning novel is published by a Canadian independent publisher. The contest began in a
Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...
bar in 1977, where a handful of writers sat around bragging about their literary prowess. The tough-talk eventually led to a challenge: Go home and write an entire novel in three days. None of them managed to produce a book that first year, but the next Labour Day weekend the challenge was thrown down again, to an even larger group. The challenge was repeated the following year—and this time it produced a novel worth publishing: ''Dr. Tin'' by
Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
playwright
Tom Walmsley Tom Walmsley (December 13, 1948 - April 17, 2025) was a Canadian playwright, novelist, poet and screenwriter.Arsenal Pulp Press Arsenal Pulp Press is a Canadian independent book publishing company, based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The company publishes a broad range of titles in both fiction and non-fiction, focusing primarily on underrepresented genres such as und ...
ran the contest, took it international, and published one winner every year. In the late 1980s, Arsenal Pulp passed the torch to
Anvil Press A multi-anvil press, or anvil press is a type of device related to a machine press that is used to create extraordinarily high pressures within a small volume. Anvil presses are used in materials science and geology for the synthesis and study the ...
, which, 15 years later, passed it on to another small press. That publisher folded the same year, which seemed to mean the end of the contest. But a couple of fans of the Three-Day Novel agreed to rescue it; they put in hundreds of volunteer hours to set it up and manage it as an independent organization, which they maintained for nine years. In 2013, they passed on management of the contest to the ''
Geist ''Geist'' () is a German noun with a significant degree of importance in German philosophy. ''Geist'' can be roughly translated into three English meanings: ghost (as in the supernatural entity), spirit (as in the Holy Spirit), and mind or int ...
'' Foundation and the job of publishing the winning novel to Anvil Press. In 2006, the Three-Day Novel Contest became the subject of a reality television program under the auspices of
BookTelevision BookTelevision was a Canadian English language specialty channel owned by Bell Media. The channel was originally established in 2001 by Learning and Skills Television of Alberta Ltd., then partially owned by CHUM Limited, airing programming rel ...
, a Canadian specialty channel produced by
CHUM Limited CHUM Limited was a Canadian media company based in Toronto, Ontario in operation from 1945 to 2007. The company was founded in 1945 as York Broadcasters Limited when it launched CHUM (AM), CHUM-AM 1050 but was acquired by salesman Allan Waters in ...
. Twelve writers lived and worked in Chapters Southpoint, a bookstore in
Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...
,
Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...
, composing novels before bemused customers and a national audience. About five to six hundred writers enter the contest every year, about two-thirds of whom manage to complete and submit a novel. To date, the contest has had two repeat winners: Bradley Harris, a writer from
Memphis Memphis most commonly refers to: * Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt * Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city Memphis may also refer to: Places United States * Memphis, Alabama * Memphis, Florida * Memphis, Indiana * Mem ...
,
Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...
, won in 1998 with ''Ruby Ruby'' and again in 2012 with ''Thorazine Beach'', while Shannon Mullally was co-winner with Meghan Austin in 2004 for ''Love Block'' and won as a solo writer in 2017 for ''The Second Detective''. One winning novel, Marc Diamond's ''Momentum'', was also a shortlisted finalist for the
Books in Canada First Novel Award The Amazon Canada First Novel Award, formerly the Amazon.ca First Novel Award and the Books in Canada First Novel Award, is a Canadian literary award, co-presented by Amazon.ca and ''The Walrus'' to the best first novel in English published the p ...
.


Winners

* 1979 –
Tom Walmsley Tom Walmsley (December 13, 1948 - April 17, 2025) was a Canadian playwright, novelist, poet and screenwriter.bpNichol Barrie Phillip Nichol (30 September 1944 – 25 September 1988), known as bpNichol, was a Canadian poet, writer, sound poet, editor, creative writing teacher at York University in Toronto and grOnk/Ganglia Press publisher. His body of work ...
, ''Still'' () * 1983 – Jeff Doran, ''This Guest of Summer'' () * 1984 – Jim Curry, ''Nothing So Natural'' () * 1985 – Marc Diamond, ''Momentum'' () * 1986 –
Candas Jane Dorsey Candas Jane Dorsey (born November 16, 1952) is a Canadian poet and science fiction novelist who resides in her hometown of Edmonton, Alberta. Dorsey became a writer from an early age and works across genre boundaries, writing poetry, fiction, ma ...
and Nora Abercrombie, ''Hardwired Angel'' () * 1987 – James Dunn, ''Starting Small'' () * 1988 – Pat Dobie, ''Pawn to Queen'' () * 1989 – Stephen E. Miller, ''Wastefall'' () * 1990 – Bill Dodds, ''O Father'' () * 1992 – Hayden Trenholm, ''Circle of Birds'' () * 1993 – Steve Lundin and Mitch Parry, ''Stolen Voices/Vacant Rooms'' () * 1995 – Loree Harrell, ''Body Speaking Words'' () * 1996 –
Todd Klinck Todd Klinck is a Canadian writer, nightclub owner and pornography producer. Early life and education Klinck moved to Toronto at age 18 to study theatre at York University, but dropped out to focus on his career. In 1996, his novel ''Tacones (High ...
, ''Tacones'' () * 1997 – P. G. Tarr, ''The Underwood'' () * 1998 – Bradley Harris, ''Ruby Ruby'' () * 1999 –
Bonnie Bowman Bonnie Bowman is a Canadian writer, who won the Three-Day Novel Contest in 1999"Author met deadline by skin of her teeth". ''Victoria Times-Colonist'', September 10, 2000. and the ReLit Award for Fiction in 2000 for her debut novel ''Skin''. Ori ...
, ''Skin''"Author met deadline by skin of her teeth". ''
Victoria Times-Colonist The ''Times Colonist'' is an English-language daily newspaper in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. It was formed by the September 2, 1980 merger of the ''Victoria Daily Times'', established in 1884, and the ''British Colonist'' (later the ' ...
'', September 10, 2000.
() * 2000 – Chris Millis, ''Small Apartments'' () * 2001 – David Zimmerman, ''Socket'' () * 2002 – Geoffrey Bromhead, ''Struck'' () * 2004 – Meghan Austin and Shannon Mullally, ''Love Block'' () * 2005 – Jan Underwood, ''Day Shift Werewolf'' () * 2006 –
Brendan McLeod Brendan McLeod is a Canadian spoken word artist, musician and novelist. His work often deals with the exploration of social and political commentary, family histrionics, surreal love poems, obscure adventure stories, and powerful personal stories. ...
, ''The Convictions of Leonard McKinley'' () * 2007 – John Kupferschmidt, ''In the Garden of Men'' () * 2008 – Jason Rapczynski, ''The Videographer'' () * 2009 – Mark Sedore, ''Snowmen'' () * 2010 – Jennifer K. Chung, ''Terroryaki!'' ( / ebook ) * 2011 –
Kayt Burgess Kayt Burgess is a Canadian writer, who won the Three-Day Novel Contest in 2011 for her debut novel ''Heidegger Stairwell''."34th annual 3-Day International Novel Contest winner Kayt Burgess not daunted by deadlines"
''
Sault Star ''The Sault Star'' is a Canadian broadsheet daily newspaper based in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. It is owned by Postmedia. The print edition of Star is published on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, with regular news coverage also provided throu ...
'', October 4, 2012.
( / ebook ) * 2012 – Bradley Harris, ''Thorazine Beach'' () * 2013 – Rachel Slansky, ''Moss-Haired Girl'' () * 2014 – Craig Savel, ''Traversing Leonard’s Bubbles'' () * 2015 – Doug Diaczuk, ''Chalk'' () * 2016 – Mark Wagstaff, ''Attack of the Lonely Hearts'' () * 2017 – Shannon Mullally, ''The Second Detective'' () * 2018 – Daniel Sanders, ''The Loop'' () * 2019 – Doug Diaczuk, ''Just Like a Real Person'' () * 2020 – Emma Côté, ''Unrest''"Une autrice d'Iroquois Falls remporte un concours international d'écriture"
CBON-FM CBON-FM is a Canadian radio station. It broadcasts the Société Radio-Canada's Ici Radio-Canada Première network at 98.1 FM in Sudbury, Ontario. The station also serves much of Northern Ontario through a network of relay transmitters. Hist ...
, May 11, 2021. * 2021 – Benjamin Fidler, ''Gone to Pieces'' * 2022 - Pat Dobie, ''The Tenants''


See also

*
Lune Spark Young Writers' Short Story Contest The Lune Spark Young Writers' Short Story Contest is an annual summer contest hosted by publishing company Lune Spark, open to minor children wishing to submit their writing for print publication. Beginning in 2016 and managed by Lune Spark producer ...
* National Kids-in-Print Book Contest for Students *
National Novel Writing Month National Novel Writing Month, often shortened to NaNoWriMo ( ), was a U.S.-based nonprofit organization that promoted creative writing around the world. Its flagship program was an annual, international creative writing event in which participa ...
*
PBS Kids Writers Contest The PBS Kids Writers Contest is an annual art and literature competition for students grades kindergarten to 12 in the United States. The competition was relaunched under the name PBS Kids Go! Writers Contest in 2009 as a continuation from its pre ...


References

{{reflist


External links


Three-Day Novel Contest
Awards established in 1979 1979 establishments in British Columbia Canadian fiction awards Literary awards honoring unpublished books or writers