Canadian Living Journalism Prize

Writers’ Guidelines

Thanks for your interest in the Canadian Living Journalism Prize, open to all students currently enrolled full-time in a journalism program at an accredited Canadian college or university.We hope the following information will be useful to you in developing and preparing your query.

With nearly 4.5 million readers every month, Canadian Living Magazine is one of Canada’s most well read publications. Applicants to the Canadian Living Journalism Prize are encouraged to consider how their stories and ideas might extend to our website, which draws 900,000 unique visitors every month.

Our Mission

To offer Canadian women smart solutions for everyday living.

Canadian Living is a service magazine; we provide readers with accessible information that they can apply today, should they choose to.

Our Reader

“I just never seem to have enough time – time for my work, for my family, for my partner, time for me. But who does? My solution is to take each day as it comes and try not to feel guilty about what I can’t get done.”

The Canadian Living reader is busy. She leads a life of diverse yet integrated elements: her family, career, volunteer work, friends and leisure activities. She is committed, striving to be an excellent parent and an active, involved member of her community, which may be her neighbourhood, her city or her children’s school. She is proud to be a Canadian.

But whether our reader is a stay-at-home mom, is self-employed or employed full or part time outside the home, her emotional core and chief priority is her home and her family life. Regardless of where else she turns for information about her many other interests – from the stock market to junior-league soccer – Canadian Living is her primary source of relevant, up-to-date, accessible information about home and family, health and wellness, and food and nutrition.

Content Guidelines

Canadian Living is home- and family-centered, and entries should fall into one of the following two categories:

Life (Family & Community)

Family relationships and issues
Parenting
Environmental issues as related to Canadian communities and/or families
Social issues as related to Canadian communities and/or families
Community initiatives and trends
Community celebrations
Profile of an interesting/unique/successful Canadian woman

Health (Health & Wellness)

Medicine and physical health/wellness
Psychological, emotional and spiritual health
Alternative health
Fitness
Nutrition

Both sections aim to provide practical solutions for everyday living. So, while a trend, hot issue or new study might spark an idea for a story, that story must ultimately yield a practical application. That application could be anything from how to talk to teens about date abuse, to news on how to treat arthritis or prevent heart disease, to suggestions for building community consensus on a naturalized schoolyard.

That said, we’re careful never preach or dictate; we share information the way a good friend might: respectfully and nonjudgmentally.

Our tone is positive, energetic and confident; even though a story may deal with a difficult subject, it always emphasizes the resolution or positive outcome. Overall, we aim to be compelling but not sensationalist, inspiring rather than intimidating, empowering but not pretentious.

Canadian content is, obviously, critical to Canadian Living, as is representation from across the country. This doesn’t mean every single source must be Canadian, but rather that Canadian sources and perspectives must be included. In cases where a study or groundbreaking work originates in another country, you should seek Canadian comment and application.

Feature articles for the Canadian Living Journalism Prize will range in length from
1,800 to 2,000 words.

Canadian Living rarely publishes travel articles, or features dealing with career or workplace issues. We do not accept submissions for fiction or poetry.

Your Query

Mail the completed form, all of the required documents and your query to:

“Canadian Living Journalism Prize,”
Canadian Living Magazine,
Suite 100,
25 Sheppard Ave., W.,
Toronto, Ontario,
M2N 6S7

Your query should be no more than 600 words long and should include a succinct statement of your concept and focus: that is, what your story will show or detail, rather than what it will be about. For example, a proposal to explain “how parents can spot and help resolve body image disorders in boys” gives us a better sense of your concept than a story “about boys and body image.”

Be sure to include a brief outline of the type of information you would include in your story, and note the kinds of experts you would seek to interview. You should also suggest the kinds of anecdotal material you would include – those real people whose lives and experiences will illustrate your points, help to bring your story alive and make it relevant and accessible to our readers.

We also recommend that you consider – and suggest to us – how your story could be extended or modified for use on our website. We are always looking for new material for often material that is related to – but not a duplication of – the magazine’s feature content.

We look forward to hearing from you.