Three Surrey students win Dhahan Prize Youth Awards for their Punjabi prose

Two students from L.A. Matheson Secondary and one from Princess Margaret Secondary are among this year's eight winners of the Dhanan Prize Youth Awards, a Punjabi short story and literature contest for Grade 11 and 12 students in B.C.

Jujhar Singh Chahal, Daljeet Singh Dhillon and Mantoj Kaur Grewal were recognized at last week's awards ceremony, held at L.A. Matheson Secondary, a partner in the contest by local business owner Barj S. Dhahan. The fourth-annual creative writing contest tested the writing and language skills of Grade 11 and 12 students who wrote short stories between 800 and 1,000 words in Punjabi and translated into English.

"As a Punjabi language teacher, I feel so proud of my students," said L.A. Matheson teacher Gurpreet Bains. "Some of them started with the alphabet in Grade 10 and have gone on to making sentences in creative writing and then winning nothing else gives me more happiness than this."

A jury of professors and authors selected this year's winners, which also included four recipients from Dasmesh Punjabi School in Abbotsford and one from Khalsa Secondary School. Each winner received a $500 bursary, as well as a copy of Lofty Heights, an anthology of the winning stories, with translations in Gurmukhi, Shahmukhi Scripts, French and English. (The anthology is available for purchase by contacting Barj S. Dhahan at barj@dhahanprize.com)

"I'm not a published author but my students are, how cool is that?" said Bains.

L.A. Matheson principal Kirsten Farquhar said the contest highlights a variety of moving themes from students, often showcasing their voices through creative writing.

"A lot of it is about identity, and the students are writing about identity in these beautiful stories that their audience connects with," she said. "That's a big piece of it all, they're developing themselves through literature."

Full List of Winning Submissions:

• Do Good, Have Good by Namandeep Kaur, Khalsa Secondary
• Moon by Puneet Kaur Khakh, Dasmesh Punjabi School
• Realization by Jujhar Singh Chahal, L.A. Matheson Secondary
• Remorse by Daljeet Singh Dhillon, L.A. Matheson Secondary
• The Delicate Threads of Relationships by Gursimar Kaur Mahal, Dasmesh Punjabi School
• The Value of Hard Work by Gurleen Kaur Brar, Dasmesh Punjabi School
• Distressed Soul by Mantoj Kaur Grewal, Princess Margaret Secondary
• Together by Prabhleen Kaur Buttar, Dasmesh Punjabi School