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canadian writers’ summit

June 27, 2016 //

CWS+LOGO+colour+CMYK

 

After almost two years of planning, the inaugural Canadian Writers’ Summit finally had its debut at Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre, June 15 to 19. A collaboration between 14 national writing organizations, the super-conference represented many firsts: the pooling of resources to gain efficiencies and maximize ideas and the super-sized gathering of Canadian writers among them.

CWS_The organizers banners at CWS_c Katrina Afonso

Banners of the member organizations that put the conference together. Photographer Katrina Afonso.

In total, around 800 writers and publishing and literary arts professionals attended the conference, which included keynote addresses by Lawrence Hill, Nalo Hopkinson and Heather O’Neill, panels about the business of writing, craft of writing, government funding models, equity and diversity in the literary industry, and the annual one-day Book Summit publishing conference.

Now Trending panel at Book Summit at CWS 2016. Photographer Brian Medina.

I managed the communications on behalf of the conference, which included stops at The Candy Palmater Show and The National, and in the Toronto Star and Globe and Mail, as well as for the publishing trade press in Canada and the US.

CWS_Crowd at the Dayne Ogilvie Prize_c Katrina Afonso

Crowd at the presentation of the Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBT Emerging Writers, part of CWS 2016. Photographer Katrina Afonso.

CWS is set to take place every second year, with the next event scheduled for June 2018, also at Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre.

In 2017, the organizing groups will host their own conferences and AGMs.

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Categories Events, Industry, Publicity

party. politics.

April 25, 2016 //

 

Every year, the Politics & the Pen gala gathers 500 guests from Canada’s literary and political circles to dress up, put party politics aside for the night, and celebrate Canadian writers and writing.

A fundraiser for the Writers’ Trust of Canada, the event has, to date, raised more than $3 million to support Canada’s writers. The highlight of the night is the announcement of the winner of the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing.

This year’s gala, held at Ottawa’s Fairmont Chateau Laurier, was hosted by Catherine Clark and Ben Mulroney, who had the crowd in stitches with their schtick (heavy on the “kids of former PMs” jokes, obviously). The evening concluded with the presentation of the $25,000 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing to John Ibbitson for Stephen Harper.

In all, more than $365,000 was raised to support Canada’s writers.

Here are some fabulous photos.

And here is one of many fabulous write-ups.

Congratulations to all of this year’s prize nominees. In addition to eventual winner John Ibbitson, they were:

Greg Donaghy for Grit: The Life and Politics of Paul Martin Sr.

Norman Hillmer for O.D. Skelton: A Portrait of Canadian Ambition

Andrew Nikiforuk for Slick Water: Fracking and One Insider’s Stand Against the World’s Most Powerful Industry

Sheila Watt-Cloutier for The Right to Be Cold: One Woman’s Story of Protecting Her Culture, the Arctic, and the Whole Planet

Categories Events, Fundraisers, Literary Awards, Publicity

writers’ trust winners

November 9, 2015 //

(l to r) Karen Solie, Deirdre Dore, André Alexis, Richard Wagamese, Jan Thornhill, Annabel Lyon. Photo credit: Tom Sandler

The Writers’ Trust Awards ceremony is easily one of my favourite literary events of the year. Over the course of an hour, the Writers’ Trust gives out six prizes for literary merit and $139,000 to Canadian writers. There are always some surprises and there are always some very excellent acceptance speeches. The 300-strong crowd is a who’s who of emerging writers, entry-level publishing staff, and the most experienced and respected publishers in the land.

Without a doubt, one of this years’ most memorable moments was the acceptance speech delivered by Richard Wagamese on accepting the Matt Cohen Award: In Celebration of a Writing Life. Don’t believe me? Watch it here. It is well worth 4 minutes of your time.

The award recipients were:

Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize ($25,000)
André Alexis for Fifteen Dogs, published by Coach House Books

Writers’ Trust/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize ($10,000)
Deirdre Dore for “The Wise Baby,” published in Geist

Vicky Metcalf Award for Literature for Young People ($20,000)
Jan Thornhill

Latner Writers’ Trust Poetry Prize ($25,000)
Karen Solie

Writers’ Trust Engel/Findley Award ($25,000)
Annabel Lyon

Matt Cohen Award: In Celebration of a Writing Life ($20,000)
Richard Wagamese

 


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Categories Literary Awards, Publicity

a win for stalin’s daughter

October 9, 2015 //

The crowd gathers at the 2015 Hilary Weston Prize presentation. Photo credit: Tom Sandler

At an elegant gathering of 200 well-heeled, literary-minded folk in the Art Gallery of Ontario’s Walker Court on October 6, the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction was awarded to Rosemary Sullivan for Stalin’s Daughter: The Extraordinary and Tumultuous Life of Svetlana Alliluyeva.

Performers brought each of the nominated books to life throughout the party and awards show. Also present was the winner of this year’s Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Student Nonfiction Writing Contest, Nico Branham.

In her acceptance speech, Sullivan thanked her late mother, her “most persistent fan.”

The next morning, I dragged her out bright and early to do the media rounds. She was very nice about it.

A photo gallery of the night’s festivities can be viewed here on the Writers’ Trust Facebook page.

 

 

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Categories Literary Awards, Publicity

first fiction finalists of the season

October 2, 2015 //

 

Anxious publishers and publicists and members of the media gathered at Ben McNally Books in downtown Toronto for the unveiling of the first fiction-prize shortlists of the fall 2015 literary season.

The finalists for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize are:

The winner will receive $25,000 and each finalist $2,500.

The finalists for the Writers’ Trust/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize are:

The winner will receive $10,000 and each finalist will receive $1,000.

In addition, the journal that first published the winning story will receive $2,000.

The winners of both prizes, along with four other awards for a body of work, will be announced at the Writers’ Trust Awards ceremony in Toronto’s Glenn Gould Studio on November 3.

 

 

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Categories Literary Awards, Publicity

a puzzle and a list

September 18, 2015 //

After three years of swanky shortlist announcements alongside the cheese wall at Loblaws at Maple Leaf Gardens, this year’s shortlist for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction came via a very different delivery method.

On the morning of September 16, a few lucky publishers were greeted with a hand-delivered jigsaw puzzle when they arrived at work. “Gather your staff around,” they were told, “there’s good news in this box.”

A 70-piece physical puzzle was given to the nominated publishers and sent to each nominated author. A digital puzzle was also disseminated via email and social media. Along with a good, old-fashioned press release, of course.

Media and publishers alike responded with videos, images and animated gifs of them assembling the puzzle (watch the CBC Books team assemble it below).

This year’s shortlisted authors, in the running for $60,000, are:

  • Eliott Behar, Tell it to the World: International Justice and the Secret Campaign to Hide Mass Murder in Kosovo
  • Douglas Coupland, Kitten Clone: Inside Alcatel-Lucent
  • Dean Jobb, Empire of Deception: The Incredible Story of a Master Swindler Who Seduced a City and Captivated the Nation
  • Lynette Loeppky, Cease: A Memoir of Love, Loss and Desire
  • Rosemary Sullivan, Stalin’s Daughter: The Extraordinary and Tumultuous Life of Svetlana Alliluyeva

The winner will be announced at a ceremony at the Art Gallery of Ontario on October 6.

Photo at top courtesy of the Writers’ Trust.


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Categories Literary Awards, Publicity

our thing in the spring

May 28, 2015 //

Alessandra Naccarato, winner of the RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers. Photo credit Katrina Afonso.

 

On a hot and humid May evening in Toronto, the Writers’ Trust of Canada handed out its “thing in the spring,” the RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers. The winner was  Alessandra Naccarato for her poetry collection “Re-Origin of Species.”

The Bronwen Wallace Award recognizes emerging writers under 35 who have yet to publish in book form. Past winners include many then-unknown but now-familiar names, such as Michael Crummey, Alissa York, Alison Pick and Jeramy Dodds.

Host Tanis Rideout (another past winner) set the perfect tone: fun, celebratory, reverential. The crowd schmoozed to classical renditions of Top 40 songs (we were in the Royal Conservatory of Music, after all) in a stunning all-glass room with views of Philosopher’s Walk and the Royal Ontario Museum. The atmosphere was fun, lively, and distinctly emerge-from-hibernationy. This was, said Tanis “our thing in the spring.”

Alessandra Naccarato won $5,000. Her fellow nominees each won $1,000. They were: Irfan Ali for “Who I Think About When I Think About You,” and Chuqiao Yang for “Roads Home.”

Find out more about the prize and this year’s nominees here.

Read stories from CBC Books, the Toronto Star and Quill and Quire here, here and here.

And check out a Facebook photo gallery from the event courtesy of the Writers’ Trust here.

Here are the three nominees chatting with me and (via the magic of Periscope) the world on the pre-ceremony “red-carpet.”

Chatting to award finalists Irfan Ali, Alessandro Naccarato and Chuqiao Yang before the ceremony. Photo credit Katrina Afonso.

 

 

 

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Categories Events, Host / Interviewer, Industry, Literary Awards, Publicity

enlightenment at politics and the pen

March 15, 2015 //

From left: Tony Clement, Megan Leslie, Stephen Maher, Tom Power, Richard Madan and Lisa Raitt perform Sweet Caroline at the Politics & the Pen gala

 

On Wednesday night, at the Politics and the Pen Gala in Ottawa, Joseph Heath was named the winner of the $25,000 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing for his book Enlightenment 2.0: Restoring Sanity to Our Politics, Our Economy, and Our Lives.

The event, which is a fundraiser for the Writers’ Trust of Canada, was held at Ottawa’s Fairmont Chateau Laurier and attended by 500 guests from Canada’s political, literary and arts communities.

Highlights included a “Battle of the Bands,” which was kicked off by co-hosts Hon. Tony Clement and Tom Power and joined by MPs Lisa Raitt and Megan Leslie, journalist Stephen Maher, and broadcaster Richard Madan (pictured).

The event raised more than than $330,000 for the Writers’ Trust of Canada.

The five Shaughnessy Cohen Prize nominees were:

  • Joseph Heath for Enlightenment 2.0: Restoring Sanity to Our Politics, our Economy, and Our Lives (winner)
  • Chantal Hébert with Jean Lapierre for The Morning After: The 1995 Quebec Referendum and the Day that Almost Was
  • Naomi Klein for This Changes Everything: Capitalism Vs the Climate
  • John Ralston Saul for The Comeback: How Aboriginals Are Reclaiming Power and Influence
  • Graham Steele for What I Learned About Politics: Inside the Rise – and Collapse – of Nova Scotia’s NDP Government

View photos from the event and read party recaps at Globe & Mail, HELLO!, Hill Times, Maclean’s, Ottawa Citizen, Ottawa Magazine.

Listen to Joseph Heath talk to CBC As it Happens about his book and winning the prize here and read his interview with the Globe & Mail here.

 

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Categories Events, Fundraisers, Industry, Literary Awards, Publicity

read write speak tackles the freedom to read

March 3, 2015 //

From right: Paula Todd talks to Brian MacLeod Rogers and Ron Brown at Read. Write. Speak.

This year, Freedom to Read Week in Canada saw more than 65 events take place in schools, libraries and public spaces across the country. In Toronto, the Book and Periodical Council programmed an event with this year’s Freedom to Read Week Champion of Free Expression Brian MacLeod Rogers in conversation with investigative reporter and author Paula Todd (pictured).

The event — entitled Read. Write. Speak. Free Expression Champions on Self-Censorship, Libel Law and Access to Information — also included the presentation of two awards for  free expression advocacy. Ron Brown was awarded the Writers’ Union of Canada’s Freedom to Read Award, and Brian Campbell was awarded the Canadian Library Association’s Advancement of Intellectual Freedom in Canada Award.

Freedom to Read Week is an annual event that encourages Canadians to think about and reaffirm their commitment to intellectual freedom: a celebration with a serious purpose. This marked the 31st year of the event, which is a programme of the Book and Periodical Council.

 

 

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Categories Events, Publicity

winning words at the 2014 writers’ trust awards

November 19, 2014 //

Award winners (l to r) Joan Thomas, Cary Fagan, Miriam Toews, Ken Babstock, Susan Musgrave, Tyler Keevil

On November 4, 2014, Canada’s literary crowd got together for the night of warm fuzzy feelings that is the annual Writers’ Trust Awards.  Held at the Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto, the event was hosted by Globe & Mail Arts Editor Jared Bland, who shared literary anecdotes between emotional speeches from the winners. In total, $139,000 in prize money was awarded to Canadian writers. The night’s winners were:

  • Miriam Toews for All My Puny Sorrows, which won the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize
  • Tyler Keevil for “Sealskin,” which won the Writers’ Trust/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize
  • Ken Babstock, who won the inaugural Latner Writers’ Trust Poetry Prize
  • Joan Thomas, who won the Writers’ Trust Engel/Findley Award
  • Susan Musgrave, who won the Matt Cohen Award: In Celebration of a Writing Life
  • Cary Fagan, who won the Vicky Metcalf Award for Literature for Young People.

Here’s some of the media coverage:

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Categories Literary Awards, Publicity
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