Clea Roberts essay “The Discovery” placed second in Room Magazine’s Creative Non-Fiction Contest.
Hear Clea’s interview with CBC Yukon that aired February 5, 2026 on Airplay with Brenda Barnes. Clea talks about why she enters literary contests, about the grief writing workshops she facilitates through Hospice Yukon and how writing is an act of connection.
Judge’s citation:
A meditation on loneliness, refuge, and chosen kinship, The Discovery traces a child’s private orbits through a volatile home and into the generosity of a neighbour’s care. With tenderness, the essay reframes escape as attention, revealing how small kindnesses become constellations that guide us toward wonder as refuge and survival.
The contest judge was Calgary-based writer Amy Lin, whose wrote the remarkable memoir Here After.
