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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Bilingual writer Amber O'Reilly won the 2008 Roch Carrier Short Story Award last month for a post-apocalyptic short story set in Western Canada titled La Renaissance du Canada (The Canadian Renaissance).

Amber O'Reilly: Student author won Roch Carrier Short Story award.

The writing competition was sponsored by the Ottawa-based Society for Educational Visits and Exchanges in Canada (SEVEC), an organization that provides first-hand cross-cultural educational opportunities for young people from different regions of the country.

The society flew O'Reilly to Ottawa to meet the competition's namesake, author Roch Carrier, late last month.

"It was the first time I'd written something in both languages, so that was interesting," she said, adding it was a challenge to maintain the same literary voice and style in both languages. "You have to make sure you're using the same kind of vocabulary."

The story tells of an atomic bomb test in B.C. that destroys much of the West coast. The English portion of the text is a passage from a fictional newspaper article describing the atomic catastrophe. The rest is in French.

In the story, a character named John Simmons finds a weeping infant lying on the ground next to a solitary blade of green grassamidst the toxic fallout.

"It's kind of like the miracle of life," O'Reilly explained.

Simmons carries the baby to a rescue tent where he puts the child into the care of a nurse. By the end of the story, the narrative suggests the pair fall in love and raise the baby together as a new beginning.

O'Reilly won the Northwords writers contest in 2006 for a personal essay in English about what it means to live in the North.

"Writing is one of my passions, so I definitely want to keep it up," she said. "I do want to continue writing in one way or other for my career. I want writing to be part of my life."

In addition to writing, O'Reilly plays fiddle with the Aurora Fiddle Society, rides a big bay horse named Mack at North Country Stables and performs with her school drama club. She also has an award-winning collection of stamps.