By Jack Brittle, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
This spring, the Burlington Public Library (BPL) accepted submissions for its annual Write Here, Write Now creative writing contest, with winners announced in July. The theme of this year’s contest was “Beyond the Open Door.” Writers were asked to base their short story on this phrase and keep their submissions to 1000 words or less.
The contest was organized into three age groups: 9–12, 13–17, and 18+. Each first-place winner received a $100 cash prize.
Initially, the plan was to award only one winner in each category, but the BPL website explains that judges were so impressed with the submissions that two additional winners were named in each group.
Two hundred and two submissions were received this year.
In previous years, the contest also featured categories for poetry and comics, but neither category was included in this year’s contest.
According to BPL’s website, this was done to “streamline the process, open the contest to more young writers and spend more time with each submission.”
Harshanee Patel won first place in the 18+ category for her story entitled The Scent of Home.
Patel said that while she is not new to writing, Write Here, Write Now was somewhat new territory.
“When I do write, I’m publishing stuff for a blog,” Patel said. “I’m part of Toastmasters, I’ve written speeches and things like that, but mostly very personal things.”
Patel’s story is a semi-autobiographical retelling of her journey from war-torn Sri Lanka to Canada in 1989.
Patel spoke about how she incorporated the theme “Beyond the Open Door” into her story, literally and figuratively.
“There’s that metaphorical door where you’re moving through something, like from one country to another,” Patel said. “But there’s also the van where I’m leaving my home, going through the airports and the airplane, and then coming out from the gate in Toronto at Pearson.”
The first time I saw my father cry was also the same night we crossed an ocean.
— From Harshanee Patel’s The Scent of Home
She said that writing the story brought back many emotions from that period in her childhood, including sadness about leaving and the stress of living under bomb threats and curfew.
Patel said that she made sure to include parallels between her experiences in the two countries.
“One was the sounds that you hear on TV,” Patel said. “The news is always about the war in Sri Lanka, and it got to a point where we got desensitized to it. The parallel to that was when we came to London, Ontario, it was just mostly sitcoms like Full House or my grandmother and aunt watching soaps, like The Young and the Restless.”
Irena Kagansky placed third in the 18+ category for her story The Door I Keep Open.
Kagansky previously participated in the contest in the now-defunct poetry category, but 2026 was her first time submitting a short story.
While she said that a lot of the story is fictional, it is based on her experience as a parent with a disability and depression.
“I use forearm crutches for mobility,” Kagansky said. “I’m a mother of a 9-year-old, and I do live in a condo with my husband. There’s a lot of stigma around issues with depression and disability parenting, and there are no provisions for parents with disabilities. I wanted to shed a light on the issue but do it in a lighter way. Apparently it resonated with some people in terms of the storylines and the ideas represented.”
Kagansky spoke about what the “doors” in her story meant.
I hated it. Doors open meant I was expected to walk through them. And I couldn’t.
— From Irena Kagansky’s The Door I Keep Open
“I guess the doors opening and closing is a metaphor for the challenges that someone with depression faces,” Kagansky explained. “Just being able to get up in the morning and open some doors and go face the challenges despite the fears and the anxiety.”
Kagansky said that she often tries to be vulnerable in her writing.
“I think vulnerability is very important in writing. To me, there’s very little point in doing your craft unless you’re able to be at least somewhat vulnerable and open to how people interpret you.”
Read the winning stories on the Burlington Public Library website.
