The results are in for the fifth annual B.C.-wide Junior Authors Short Story Writing Contest.
This summer, 58 stories were submitted from 17 municipalities across the province.
Noa Wang, a Ladner resident, captured first prize for the third time since the contest started in 2009 with her story about life after death titled Flying Away.
When asked what inspired her, the 13year-old said, "I had recently read a book called Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin, and it made me think quite a bit about life and death.
"Life is never what you expect it to be and it takes a lot of courage to go through; and death might just be the same."
Simran Hothi of Richmond captured first prize in the 14 to 17 category this year.
Hothi's story, Where to Look, examines one of those moments in life when it is really hard to see the beauty that is right in front of us.
When asked what inspired the story, the 17-year-old said, "At first, this piece started off as a sketch of two characters and then somehow turned into the idea of finding beauty in odd places."
For complete 2013 contest rules, rankings of this year's submissions and results from previous years, visit www.laurathomascommunications.com.
