Editorial Nuestra Palabra publishers, AMPO, and the Consulates of Spain and Peru in Toronto are pleased to announce and invite the Hispanic community in Canada, and the Hispanic-Canadian community around the world, to participate in the thirteenth annual edition of the “Nuestra Palabra” short story competition, dedicated to promoting the reading and writing of literature in Spanish and the promotion of Spanish-speaking values.

The “Nuestra Palabra” short story competition began in 2004 as an incentive for new writers in Spanish who were living in Canada to make themselves known, get published and be encouraged to keep writing, and for established writers to consolidate their experience and further their writing careers.

In 2009 the collection Cuentos de nuestra palabra en Canadá. Primera hornada was published, an anthology presenting a selection of 51 of the short stories submitted to the competition in its first five years (2004-2008). The book can be found in the collections of libraries across Canada that stock books in Spanish. The plan is to produce a similar selection every five years, and a second anthology appeared in October 2014, containing a selection of the stories submitted in the years 2009 to 2013.

The 2016 edition of the competition is now accepting submissions, and the rules can be found at the competition’s website (in Spanish only). Submissions will be accepted until September 30, 2016.

The top three prize-winning stories will be published on the Nuestra Palabra website, and the first-place winner’s story will also be published in print in the Montreal literary journal The Apostles Review. In addition, English translations of all of the first place winners from 2004 to 2013 have been published on line on the Diálogos Online Forum.