Camille Pavlenko, early-career playwright and theatre artist, has won the TSF Emerging Writers Short Prose Competition for the second year in a row.
Her aspiration to be an actor from a young age led her on a path through the diverse world of theatre arts. After enrolling in a playwriting class as part of her undergraduate studies, Camille’s passion for writing found a new niche and soon became a primary focus.
Taking advantage of many available opportunities for emerging writers, Camille has explored and worked in different genres including drama, comedy, and children’s theatre.
Her plays for children, adults, and radio have been produced by professional companies across her home province of Alberta.
Her adaptation of Rapunzel (with music written by VISSIA) is currently touring for the 2024-25 school year (Alberta Musical Theatre Company). Lunchbox Theatre will premiere her comedy Go for Gold, Audrey Pham, and Calgary Young People’s Theatre will direct her new adaptation of Lewis Caroll’s The Hunting of the Snark.
Inspired by the creativity of artists in different genres, Camille’s work is influenced at times by Ukrainian cultural traditions that she experienced being raised in a Ukrainian Canadian family.
The winning short prose submission in 2025, Kuzmenko Residence, was inspired by a prompt to write a story in which a character feels trapped, and the writer’s strong nostalgia for the plastic covering the tablecloth at her Baba’s house. It was in trying to make these two things meet that this piece came together.
“In the sea of budding novelists and aspiring authors, moments where one receives recognition are as precious as gold! The Shevchenko Foundation’s generous prize and humbling spotlight grants me the confidence to keep pursuing excellence as I finish my master’s degree in creative writing,” acknowledged Camille Pavlenko.
Camille is a two-time Betty Mitchell Award nominee and a past recipient of The Shevchenko Foundation Emerging Writers Short Prose Competition as well as a runner-up for the Bridge Prize and the Lee Playwriting Prize. She is currently pursuing her MFA in Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia.