Ist Leah Knight,

McMaster University

2nd Helen Siourbas,

Concordia University

3rd Shannon Cowan,

University of Guelph

Paul Hong,

York University

David Robbeson,

University of Ottawa

POETRY

Ist Sefi Amir,

Dawson College

2nd (tie) Troon Harrison,

Trent University

2nd (tie) Ardessa-Nica Jessieu,

Concordia University

Honourable Mentions

Erin E. MacDonald

Lakehead University,

Morley Nirenberg

Ryerson Polytechnic University

THERE IS PROMISE HERE, AND PERFORMANCE, TOO.

The work of the winners in the fifth year of the country's leading student writing competition shows remarkable complexity, as well as evidence of experience. They are far from naivety or frivolity --let alone Generation X vacancy. We thank the Book City chain of bookstores in Toronto, without whose generous support, there would have been no awards; the final judges, Eric McCormack, Libby Scheier, and Rhea Tregebov; all the entrants; the staff of Books in Canada; and everyone else involved.

LEAH KNIGHT, 19, WAS RECENTLY a runner-up in Homemaker's Write Your Way to China Challenge to become one of Canada's young ambassadors for the United Nations 1995 World Conference on Women. Leah is entering her second year at McMaster University, studying English and Comparative Literature. Last year she tried her hand at journalism for the Hamilton Spectator, doing reviews and interviews. This year she is Vice President of MUSE, McMaster's English society. Her work with Wolsak and Wynn Publishers this past summer has encouraged her interest in Canadian literature in particular and publishing in general as a career that could link her love of writing with her zest for plans and projects.

I WAS BORN IN MONTREAL IN 1977 to Israeli parents, and at the age of two returned to Israel where I spent most of my childhood. I returned to Montreal at the age of ten, and went to high school at Royal West Academy. I now attend Dawson College where I found pedagogical inspiration for the first time (Michael Harris deserves credit..) and am studying Fine Arts, passionately writing and painting, reading Jan Conn's poetry, and being throughly unrealistic about the future.