Valerie’s contest entry of Today I Shot Desmond, was awarded Honourable mention in the Genre short Story category of the 94TH Annual Writer’s Digest Writing Competition. There were nearly 3,800 submissions in this years competition, spanning 45 countries!

Valerie name and title of winning piece will be listed on WritiersDigest.com in November 2025

The latest literary offering from the Sooke Writers' Collective, titled Elevenses, serves up a delightful blend of stories and poetry, capturing the essence of a mid-morning snack break for the mind.

Coordinator of the collective, Deb Clay, said the word elevenses means a snack break around 11 a.m. and was chosen as the title of the 11th anthology because it represents how the collective nurtures the storyteller in its members and feeds imaginations.

Adorned by artist P. Pallot, the anthology's cover art depicts a scene of tea, treats, and books nestled within a forest setting.

The collective's biggest anthology ever boasts contributions from thirty-two local writers, including Rena Young, an accomplished student from Edward Milne Community School who won the Emerging Young Writers Contest 2024.

Award-winning authors Jim Bottomley, Nancy Davies, D K Eve, David Reichheld, and C.E.W. Winstanley grace the pages, along with local novelists Denelda Bendsen, Terry Groves, V. Knox, and D. Lambert. There’s poetry from Linda M. Green Abraham, dl clay, Tatjana Darling, Angie Dorsey, Jen Ebersohn, Kathryn Guthrie, W.M. Herring, Lynda Moore, Madelaine Roig, Lorraine Sinclair, and Mark Smith.

Contributors include longtime SWC members René Low, Andrew Moore, P.Pallot, and Ina Shah, and newer members Leslie Ann Bent, Kathrine Brown, Valerie Couture, A.M. Home, Laura Lee, Frank Stanford, and Stevi Stephens.

Credit:  Sooke News Mirror (https://www.sookenewsmirror.com/community/sooke-writers-collectives-late...)

Sooke Writers have come together to offer something new for your shelves. 

“Living on the edge is both physical and metaphorical. Stories in the shape of fiction, creative non-fiction, memoir and poetry are full of heart and spirit – asking questions, seeking answers, journeying outwards and inwards,” said Deb Clay, the collective’s coordinator.

The Sooke Writers’ Collective evolved from the former Sooke Scribblers and is meant to provide community, support and writing practice for wordsmiths across the region.

Every year, the SWC hosts a contest for local high school students and has published anthologies since 2014. This year, winning student stories and honourable mentions will be published on SookeWriters.com, as well.

Clay says it’s the collective’s biggest anthology ever, featuring work from 32 local writers and two emerging authors – Amelia Welguz and Kali Wilson from Edward Milne Community School, who are also winners of the Emerging Young Writers Contest 2025.