Canada is Our Poem contest winner announced

CONNOR LUCZKA, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

According to local poet Heidi Sander, the response to her national Canada Is Our Poem poetry contest was nothing short of overwhelming.

“The Canada Is Our Poem prize was really created to invite writers from across the country just to reflect on what Canada means to them, especially during these times,” Sander said. “I launched it in March when … we were all facing a difficult time. There were a lot of questions. I felt that we needed solidarity as much as possible, and this was my little way to contribute.

“I wanted to create a space for many kinds of voices within Canada, so including celebratory, questioning, critical, tender, bold, whatever it might be. And it ended up that the response was overwhelming in that regard. You know, the poems showed how alive and complex and deeply felt the idea of Canada still is. We received poems from across Canada representing a wide range of different lived experiences, different perspectives. … The poems, some were shaped by memory, belonging, others were grappling with history, responsibility, the future. They didn't flatten Canada into a single story. There were a lot of contradictions and complexities that were presented, and that's what I found, that's what I was hoping to hear. And it was just wonderful to receive so many submissions that represented many voices.”

Out of the many Canadians who submitted work, Sander shared that Stefanie Lee of Montreal was this contest’s winner with her poem “The Dialect(s) of Mercy,” as decided by judge Anna Yin.

Lee is a young writer living with a rare physical disability called nemaline myopathy. Her winning poem explores Canada’s history and its contemporary meaning through its created and found mythology, discussing brought cultures, the colonial institution of Canada and the Indigenous cultures here before the nation was founded. It was selected by Yin from a shortlist of finalists, which included Aubrielle Wright, Moe Zakzouk, Beth Keys, Ash T, Tina Kiklevski, Dean Gessie, Crys Wiltshire, Steve Locke,

Gabriella Varagnolo, Kortnee Sterr, Mary Anne Griffiths, Madison Barclay, Serafina Piasentin, Yashika Vahi, Chimezie Bright Osunwoke, Whitney Kitchur and Stratford’s own Alex Oeming.

“It was such a tough choice,” Sander said. “I don’t know how (Yin) arrived at it … The poems were so unique and they were all so different. There were some poems where people were writing love letters to Canada, and there were other poems where people were asking really tough questions, hard questions, and were asking Canada to be better … And I would say the winning poem, now that I think about it, she kind of touched upon both of those in a lovely way.”

As Sander said, the top 200 poets – including those who made it to be on the contest’s shortlist – will be included in an anthology published by Blue Moon Publishing, which will be available online and in local bookshop Fanfare Books this January.

Impressed with the submissions, Sander said she will continue hosting poetry contests moving forward, though it won’t likely be another Canada Is Our Poem contest.

For more information on the contest, visit https://tinyurl.com/28th4c47. For more on this contest’s winner Stefanie Lee, visit https://e-motional.com/writingbystefanie/index.html.