Two U of A students tie for first place in 2025 CLC poetry contest

Disclosure: Teren Hazzard is a volunteer writer for The Gateway.

Two winners are tied for first place in the Centre for Literatures in Canada‘s (CLC) annual poetry contest. The winners of the 2025 contest are Alexis De Villa and Teren Hazzard.

The poetry contest is open to students from the University of Alberta, MacEwan University, the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT), and Athabasca University. Both De Villa and Hazzard are U of A students and will receive $400 each as prize money.

De Villa’s poem “sinigang on settler states” explores themes of experience and identity

De Villa completed their master of arts (MA) in material culture (human ecology). They explained that poetry is not the artistic medium they’re used to engaging with.

“I’ve written a lot of poetry, but [this is] the first time I submitted anything. So it was both exciting and validating but also humbling.”

The theme of this year’s contest was polyphony — which is when two separate melodies come together to harmonize. Their poem “sinigang on settler states,” explores themes of experiences and identity, according to De Villa.

“sinigang on settler states” explores De Villa’s experience as both a non-binary person and a second-generation immigrant.

“In the last few years, I’ve really felt the idea of having multiple experiences and identities all existing at once. Also just being non-binary, that idea of singularity has not ever been something that feels real for myself and for everyone,” De Villa said.

“So I felt like when I heard the theme was polyphony … I really thought of how I’ve been feeling lately as being a person of Filipino and the Pinoy diaspora on Indigenous lands. And that balance between life outside of this land because I was born here as a second-generation immigrant. But I’m also still really disconnected from a lot of my homeland.”

They explained that they might submit to poetry contests in the future, but for now with the prize money they said they’ll use it to “pay a bill.”

Hazzard’s poem “Dance with Us, Girly Girl” is “inspired by family”

Hazzard is a first-year conservation biology major who found out about the poetry contest from his creative writing instructor Erina Harris.

Hazzard’s poem “Dance with Us, Girly Girl” centered around the theme of polyphony.

“It made me think of when you’re having family over, it’s kind of like the orchestra of different sounds and different music together. So I was really inspired by how family gatherings can be musical and could be a great time and basically are part of building a sound.”

“Dance with Us, Girly Girl” has imagery that encompasses the polyphony theme. The poem makes you picture a familial conversation, with an ABBA song in the background. Two melodic threads tying into one harmonic sound. “High-pitched cries are a cracking beat of sticks / before a concerto of shhhh sends her in a daze. / ‘Chiquitita, tell me what’s wrong,’ a metronome ticks.”

Hazzard explained how he usually writes about “being queer or about youth leadership.” Writing about family is not something he’s used to.

In terms of what he’ll do with the $400 prize, he explained how he’s going to put some of it towards textbook costs and some towards “something fun” like a piercing.

He expressed how he wants to continue submitting his work to literary magazines and start working on his own chapbook.

“This is my first writing prize, so it’s super motivating to keep writing,” he said.